Naby Keita must repay £52m fee now, in RB Leipzig clash in Champions League

Right now, it is near-on impossible to fathom that Liverpool went 68 league games unbeaten at home. Because, after six defeats on the spin at Anfield, the Premier League champions are in turmoil. Can it get any worse?

Well yes, it could. Tonight's Champions League last-16 second-leg against RB Leipzig - where they hold a 2-0 lead ahead of the 'home' leg in Budapest - is now make or break for their season.

On Sunday, injury-hit and short of creativity, Jurgen Klopp turned to Naby Keita in loss number six against Fulham. Remember him? Be honest, you'd probably forgotten.

Keita's last start came on December 19, on a day in south London where Klopp's side were purring. He played 90 minutes in a 7-0 win at Crystal Palace. Top-of-the-table, everything seemed hunky-dory.

Since then, the demise has been spectacular. Keita has been absent with an ankle injury and though he has been fit for weeks, the club have held him back in fear of another lay-off on the horizon should they push him too soon.

It seems quite some time ago - it is four years in fairness - since the Reds' hot pursuit of an exquisite African talent at Leipzig.

In fact, Klopp was so keen on Keita that he agreed a deal a year in advance, with the midfielder playing the 2017-18 season in the knowledge a move to Anfield was already agreed come the summer.

The Reds boss listed him as the best player in the Bundesliga, alongside a certain Thiago Alcantara - and look where he is now too.

'I have contact with a lot of people in the Bundesliga, how you can imagine, and I have never got so many "congratulations" messages like after we said in public that we signed Naby,' said Klopp in September 2017 when the £52million deal was agreed.

'He is the player of the league. Last year, together with Thiago Alcantara, who played an outstanding season for Bayern, he was the flier.

'He has been doing that already for two or three years in different leagues. He is still a very young boy. So that's really good news.'

And from the off, this diminutive, agile and quick-skilled creative midfielder did look the part.

This was not the case of a player struggling to adapt to the 'rough-and-tumble' of the English game - Keita was flourishing, at least from a technical standpoint.

He formed a clear path from defence to attack, with his slick movements often forging opportunities even if it didn't result in a direct assist.

The assist to the assistant, if you will.

But that was where it peaked: at the beginning. Since then, his form has fluctuated, not helped by at least eight different spells on the sidelines, as well as a strength in-depth in the centre of the park which has played a large part in Liverpool's success in the past two seasons.

Inheriting Steven Gerrard's No 8 shirt was never going to be an easy task.

This campaign has been particularly stop-start for the 26-year-old. In October he contracted coronavirus, a month later he sustained a hamstring injury and then an ankle injury around Christmas, which kept him out for two months.

Klopp has missed a player capable of unlocking defences at a time when that is exactly what is needed most. A bit of panache, ingenuity... spark.

In 75 appearances for the club, Keita has scored just seven goals, assisting three fewer. This season, he is yet to do either.

That, for player and manager, has to change. Three years in, Keita has been neither here nor there in the Reds' rocky road from challengers to champions - and now back down scrapping for any kind of form.

In the 1-0 loss on Sunday, amid seven team changes, Keita was the standout man in red.

Though his end product was lacking - as has been the case since his move to Merseyside - there were glimpses of creativity and quality that could be crucial if Liverpool are to salvage anything from this season.

People thought last month's win against Leipzig would be the catalyst for momentum, amid the eerie silence of Budapest's Puskas Arena. Against the same opponent in the same stadium, can tonight be that turning point?

Klopp certainly hopes so. Blowing a two-goal lead would be nothing short of disastrous. Keita will surely start against a familiar foe on neutral territory.

'Sometimes you have to wait for a really good thing,' Klopp said about Keita, the excitement about his newest acquisition plain to see three-and-a-half years ago.

We're still waiting for that 'good thing.' It needs to come now, before Liverpool's season turns to dust.