The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Liverpool was thrashed in the Champions League by Napoli. Jürgen Klopp admitted that until Thiago came on, there were no chances to counter-press.
Liverpool has ripped apart in the Champions League on matchday one, with Luis Daz scoring the Reds’ first goal away at Napoli, but Jürgen Klopp’s side was all over the place for the majority of the game.
“We play Wolves in three days, and I’m sure if they saw the game tonight, they can’t stop laughing,” Klopp said to BT Sport after the game, and that pretty much sums it up.
Liverpool looked a shadow of themselves defensively, with the midfield non-existent and the attack blunt, with Roberto Firmino anonymous and Mohamed Salah’s touch has deserted him.
Here are the three moments Liverpool.com picked out from the Reds’ Champions League opener in Naples.
The Good
Díaz was a bright spark in the second half, taking the fight to Napoli almost on his own and getting a deserved goal from the edge of the penalty area, but there was not much else to note.
The return from injury of Thiago Alcântara was certainly good, though, worryingly, Klopp admitted that he saw no counter-pressing opportunities for Liverpool until the Spaniard was on the field. The Reds’ reliance on the Champions League veteran is a major concern and those comments Klopp made must be a worry for him.
He and Diogo Jota will go a long way towards changing things up over the next few weeks — it would be a major shock if both of the pair were not in the starting line-up at the weekend — but they cannot do that on their own.
The Bad
In André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Piotr Zieliński — the former a Fulham reject and the latter a player that Liverpool once targeted but ended up signing Gini Wijnaldum instead — Napoli had exactly what Liverpool was missing.
Valued at a combined £63m by Transfermarkt, the duo showed plenty of intensity and provided willing and capable runners from midfield.
James Milner was bad — more on that shortly — but he was not the only one. Fabinho has looked off his best for a while now and Harvey Elliott might not be the best suited to playing that kind of game away in Europe.
“It looks like we have to reinvent ourselves,” Klopp said as he analyzed the result. “There are a lot of things lacking. The ‘fun’ part is we have to do that in the middle of a Premier League and Champions League season.”
You know things are bad when the Reds manager is talking in those terms after just two wins from seven games this campaign. He and Pep Lijnders have plenty of work to do.
The Ugly
While Milner was a likely scapegoat after the game, and that was slightly harsh on the basis that others were poor too, it was a game where his inclusion in the starting XI was far from justified.
Milner can only have been there for his experience in big matches and big atmospheres, but he started the game in the manner of someone without common sense — or pace.
He can have no complaints over the handball that led to the penalty Napoli opened the scoring with, while a few minutes later he was booked for crashing into an opponent very late and with the ball miles away.
Milner was, in truth, fortunate to escape being sent off or substituted in the first half of the game. Arthur Melo did not look match fit when he came on and Thiago is not a player to take risks with, so Milner was one of the few options left.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, though, it was not a performance to remember.
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