Jurgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool, gave a damning analysis of his team’s dreadful 4-1 Champions League loss to Napoli on Wednesday night, admitting the Reds need to “reinvent” themselves and get better in “pretty much everything.”
Liverpool put on an incredibly dull performance as a whole.
Trent Alexander-Arnold showed little sign of interest, and Joe Gomez was withdrawn from the game after the first half because of how poorly he performed. Additionally, Fabinho and Virgil van Dijk performed abysmally, and an hour into the game, Klopp lost patience with Mohamed Salah.
“It looks like we need to reinvent ourselves. There’s a lot of things lacking. We have to try to find a set up to be much better in pretty much everything,” Klopp conceded in post-match media duties.
“Not that difficult to explain when you saw the game. Napoli played a really good game and we didn’t. That’s the first explanation. Not compact defensively or offensively. Until Thiago entered the pitch I can’t remember one counter-pressing situation. We were just too wide.”
Klopp also said ahead of the weekend, “In three days, we play Wolves. When they saw the game, they cannot stop laughing probably. They were probably thinking that’s the perfect moment [to play Liverpool]. I would say it’s the perfect moment.”
Following a patchy preseason, Liverpool’s loss to Napoli means they have now lost five of their eight games in 2022/23 in all competitions, despite winning the Community Shield against Manchester City at the end of July.