A crestfallen Jurgen Klopp walked across to the travelling Kop inside Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after the final whistle and held his hands up apologetically.
“It’s a long flight from Liverpool to Napoli. For all the things they invest, I understand 100 per cent it was a very disappointing night, so I have to say sorry for that,” he explained.
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Liverpool have given their supporters so many memories to cherish with their European exploits during Klopp’s reign. Last season, they became the first club in Champions League history to win all six away matches en route to the final in Paris.
Yet the contrast between the team that dug deep to fight for glory on all fronts and the one that was humiliated by the rampant Serie A side on Wednesday could hardly be greater. Rarely has a team fallen so far, so quickly.
This was Liverpool’s worst result in Europe since they were thrashed 5-1 by Ajax in December 1966. That contest was played in thick fog, with manager Bill Shankly complaining that he couldn’t see the action from the touchline. This time, their glaring deficiencies were painfully clear.
It wasn’t a bolt from the blue. This 4-1 defeat had been coming. Liverpool have made their worst start to a season domestically since Klopp took over nearly seven years ago, with just nine points out of a possible 18. Injuries have certainly played a part but the malaise goes deeper than that, and this was the night when a slow start spiralled into something more serious.
Why did Liverpool crash to their heaviest European defeat for more than half a century and how does Klopp arrest this worrying decline?
Anger and frustration are abound among Liverpool fans and understandably so. The gulf between expectation levels and what’s currently being delivered on the field is vast.
This can’t just be shrugged off as an inevitable season of transition. The exit of Sadio Mane didn’t cause upheaval on that kind of scale.
“Our identity is intensity” is a Pep Lijnders quote that adorns the wall outside the home dressing room at Anfield. Make no mistake: Liverpool have lost their identity. They are unrecognisable.
They are getting outworked by opponents and that’s alarming. Napoli were first to everything during an embarrassingly one-sided opening 45 minutes. They showed the greater desire in all departments. They won every 50-50 battle.
There are two possible answers. Either there’s an attitude problem in Klopp’s squad or fatigue is a major issue after the demands of a 63-game campaign followed by a gruelling pre-season programme when the injuries kept stacking up.
Klopp prides himself on Liverpool being “mentality monsters” and showcasing the ability to fight back, but there was no response in Naples until it was far too late. Not even Alisson’s penalty save from Victor Osimhen woke them up.
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The club’s summer transfer activity will inevitably come under scrutiny and it was crazy that they left it so late in the transfer window to bolster their midfield. The owners should have dug deeper. The need was glaring. The debut of loan signing Arthur off the bench against Napoli late on showed that getting him up to speed will be a challenge after four months without playing.
But it’s far too simplistic to suggest that not spending enough on new talent explains why Liverpool are struggling. Just look at the names who are underperforming.
Mohamed Salah, Fabinho, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson are elite — but none of them are operating anywhere near their usual levels, and that’s hurting Liverpool. Belief seems to have been sucked out of them. Heads appear scrambled. The same mistakes keep happening.
Van Dijk had a run of 150 matches in all competitions without giving away a penalty for Liverpool. He’s now conceded two spot kicks in the last seven games by being uncharacteristically rash. Salah has had his most barren start to a season and his touch keeps letting him down. The problems on the right flank are being compounded by Alexander-Arnold’s erratic displays.
Joe Gomez endured a torrid night before being replaced by Joel Matip for the second half. Somehow, James Milner, who senselessly gave away the penalty that led to Piotr Zielinski scoring the opener, survived past the hour mark before Thiago made his comeback from injury.
Klopp’s selection calls didn’t pay off and he was slow to make the necessary changes. Handing starts to both Milner and Roberto Firmino meant there was an obvious lack of pace. Darwin Nunez needs game time to adapt to his new surroundings and leaving him out was an odd decision.
The balance of the midfield was hopeless. The pressure on the ball was non-existent as Liverpool’s high line was repeatedly exploited. The goals they conceded were so cheap and it could have been even worse.
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“We were miles too open. It felt like they had an extra man,” admitted Robertson. “You can’t come to a place like this and not be compact. They were by miles the better team.
“Too many times they had spaces to run at us and cause us problems. You come away in the Champions League and you can’t be wide open like that. We have to get back to basics and be compact. We have to wake up and quickly because we can’t perform like that.”
Klopp bemoaned that Liverpool were “too wide in possession, we were not pushing up with the last line, the midfield was not connected, the least compact performance I saw for a long, long time”.
Arguably, the most galling sight of the night was Fabinho and Gomez both stood watching as Andre-Frank Anguissa played a one-two with Zielinski and slotted home Napoli’s second. Alexander-Arnold and Gomez were both beaten far too easily in the build-up to Giovanni Simeone tapping in the third. Zielinski’s second punished more shoddy defending after another simple pass in behind.
What’s happened to Klopp’s mantra of “everyone is responsible for everything”? The body language was worrying.
“There are a lot of things lacking. We have to reinvent ourselves,” vowed the Liverpool manager. “We need to be much better in pretty much everything. We are not working as a team.”
⚽️ Zielinski 5'
⚽️ Anguissa 31'
⚽️ Simeone 44'Napoli lead Liverpool 3-0 – Jurgen Klopp's side completely outclassed in the first half.
🎥 @btsportfootball#LFC | pic.twitter.com/WyQVwLmxK7
— The Athletic UK (@TheAthleticUK) September 7, 2022
Klopp wasn’t hinting at some major shift in style or formation — more a case of trying to re-establish the kind of characteristics that made his team so difficult to stop last season.
That will be easier said than done with the quick turnaround for Saturday’s visit of Wolves but we’re talking about basics like closing down space and tracking runners. We’re talking about organisation and communication.
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Liverpool, who will return to Merseyside on Thursday afternoon, have looked ridiculously vulnerable on the counter-attack since the opening weekend at Fulham.
Luis Diaz, who pulled one back with a sweet strike, provided one of the few positives in Naples. Another came courtesy of Thiago’s lively cameo. Talk about showing what Liverpool had been missing.
The Spain international was only on the field 28 minutes but made six tackles: more than the starting midfield three and the two full-backs combined. He also won seven of his nine duels (78 per cent). Fabinho won just two out of eight (25 per cent) and Milner won just three out of 11 (27 per cent). “Until Thiago entered the pitch, I saw no counter-pressing situations,” said Klopp damningly.
Thiago has to start against Wolves. The hope is that Fabio Carvalho will be back available after recovering from a dead leg. Naby Keita, who has a serious hamstring injury, remains sidelined along with fellow midfielders Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
With Diogo Jota looking so rusty, Nunez has to lead the line. The only way to improve his understanding with his new team-mates is to give the Uruguayan a proper run.
Klopp is famed for his man-management skills and now they really need to come to the fore. Chins need to be lifted off the floor because morale has taken a battering.
The damage done to Liverpool’s prospects in group A can be repaired but the concern is that there’s so much wrong currently, and so little time to try to put things right. They need to rediscover their identity and fast.
(Top photo: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)