Liverpool need to “reinvent themselves” says stunned Klopp
Jürgen Klopp struggled to pinpoint exactly what has gone wrong with his Liverpool side who suffered a 4-1 hammering away at Napoli in Matchday 1.
A shell-shocked Jürgen Klopp admitted that he will need time to isolate the many problems his Liverpool side have been suffering since the new season kicked off and after the latest setback - a 4-1 drubbing to Napoli in their Champions League Group A opener, thinks the team needs to reinvent itself. Klopp’s side were completely outplayed and outclassed in the first half and were fortunate to only go in 3-0 down at the break with Alisson saving the Reds further embarrassment by blocking Victor Osimhen’s penalty early on.
Polish midfielder Piotr Zielinski had already put the hosts ahead after just four minutes, converting from the spot after James Milner handled in the box. Franck Zambo doubled the lead on the half hour and Giovanni Simeone was free to casually slot in at leisure just before the break to bring up his first Champions League goal. Simeone, a summer signing and the son of Atlético coach Diego, will be hard pressed to score a more straightforward goal in this competition.
Klopp admitted afterwards that the result was a kick in the teeth. “It’s really tough to take. I would say not that difficult to explain when you saw the game and, for a start, the two penalties... first and foremost, Napoli played a really good game - and we didn’t, that’s the first explanation for the defeat. After the penalties, the next goals we pretty much served to them on a plate. That’s not cool and we should have defended better in the first place. Then, 3-0 down and never really having chances in the game - we were not compact neither defensively nor offensively. Until Thiago entered, I can’t remember one counter-pressing situation because we were just too wide. Everything was very obvious, the question is why it happened. I cannot that now, I need time to think about it,” Klopp explained in the Flash Zone afterwards.
“Wolves will be laughing”
Once again, Klopp’s team found themselves behind on the board and forced to respond. In the team’s seven games so far this season, they have conceded first in five and been the first team to score just once - in the 9-0 Premier League win against Bournemouth. In those seven games, the Reds have shipped 10 goals - including three in a disastrous first half in Naples. “We’ve played bad first halves unfortunately but usually we don’t concede three goals. With Alisson Becker in goal, you have to be really bad for that to happen. It looks like we have to reinvent ourselves, so it’s really just a lot of things lacking, not in all games but now. The fun part is we have to do that in the middle of a Premier League season and a Champions League campaign; in three days we play against Wolves and if they saw the game tonight, they probably couldn’t stop laughing. They probably think it’s the perfect moment - that’s how I would see it. But we have to try to find a set-up to be much better in pretty much everything,” he conceded.
“You could see it on the pitch - we were not working as a team. And it’s nothing to do with personal stuff or pointing at each other, it’s just... in football, if there is a problem there is always a solution but it’s clear that we are not playing good enough - that’s why we are losing games,” he concluded.