Everton’s defence finally stood up to the task at hand in the Merseyside Derby to dent Liverpool’s title ambitions, and Michael Keane’s efforts on Sunday have earned the praise of BT Sport pundit Robbie Savage.
The former Wales international has singled our centre-back out for his efforts on Sunday and handed the 26-year-old a spot in his Team of the Week, placing the England ace alongside Arsenal’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Jurgen Klopp’s key man Virgil van Dijk.
Keane was the only Evertonian to force his way into Savage’s top XI of the weekend’s games, while van Dijk was likewise the only Reds ace to earn a place.
Lukaku back in form ⚽
Jorginho with a cracker ????
Sokratis and Van Dijk at the back ????What do you think of my Team of the Week? #SaturdaySav pic.twitter.com/tkWnmZ051E
— Robbie Savage (@RobbieSavage8) March 4, 2019
For our man at least, his place was firmly well deserved as while Everton were struggling for form, the backline and his contribution, in particular, stood out as to a reason why we could not manage consistent results.
Against Liverpool, however, that story was in stark contrast to his previous games, as the 6 foot 1 Three Lions international finally found his feet again to register the most successful aerial duels of any Blues star (4), completed each of his attempted tackles and made a game-high six interceptions.
One of Keane’s tackles was also a last-man effort, and without his contribution, we may have been forced to resign ourselves to a second Merseyside Derby defeat of the season.