Liverpool’s Champions League group campaign began with an embarrassingly one-sided defeat at Napoli, as a series of defensive errors saw us down four before any kind of response was seen.
Napoli 4-1 Liverpool
Champions League group stage (1) Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, Wednesday 7th September 2022
Goals: Pluma Zielinski 5′, Zambo Anguissa 31′, Simeone 44′ 46′; Diaz 48′
Lost Ballpoint Pen: Osimhen 17′
midfield void
A change of form? An Arthur debut? Thiago rushed back? No, Jurgen opted for more of the same.
Given what has happened in recent years, perhaps an argument should be made that it’s okay to keep the faith, except that this particular problem has already been responsible for a lot of the lost points and we were no closer to finding the answer here.
In fact, with Napoli being the most aggressive and adventurous team we’ve played against this season, the problem was worse than ever: huge gaps were repeatedly passed, no one could get close to their Lobotka metronome, and a woeful lack of physicality to keep up. rhythm. with the other two.
Look, James Milner had to be replaced at halftime. He should have been booked for the penalty, yes, it was obviously on purpose, and then it was for bringing down Anguissa. He was lucky not to see another booking for hitting Lobotka before the break.
We’re lucky it made it to the hour mark, actually, when the triple sub was done and off it went. It’s hard to hear, but Milner’s mobility, agility and technical ability are not at Champions League level and unless the rest of the team is in perfect form, he is not a player to be carried now.
However, this is not in the least due to No7.
Fabinho was miles away, the full-backs were lousy again in terms of positional work and follow-through, the attacking cohesion is not there with or without the ball. What a pretty picture it all paints.
Gomez’s frightening night
This was a horror show, not far off the scale of Dejan Lovren against Tottenham.
Once unlucky, twice ridiculous, three times an abomination: Joe Gomez had the ball and yet a series of strikers beat him on technique and power, thanks to Alisson and Van Dijk before his profligacy in possession proved costly. .
Our No. 12 has had a reasonable run of games this week due to injuries elsewhere, but his touch hasn’t been good even as his level of performance has been good defensively.
Here, neither was on point.
As noted above, he wasn’t the only one missing a first touch: Salah should have scored but missed the ball completely at the far post, Robertson’s pass was all over the show and Diaz missed a control attempt by about a yard. , with the ball bouncing off his hand.
A first part to forget completely although Gómez takes the worst part of the blame.
At least there’s Alisson
positive? Our goalkeeper again, which is definitely not a big plus point when a) needed in the first place and b) still conceded four.
But Alisson’s starting point was necessarily excellent on more than one occasion, making a couple of great saves and even saving the second penalty.
They don’t blame him for any of the goals.
If we’re looking for anything beyond that, they’re pretty slim picks, but more minutes for Jota off the bench, the return of Thiago and Matip’s recovery from injury are worth mentioning.
So was Diaz’s second-half performance, as he scored one and nearly added another, while generally leading the charge for respectability.
Klopp has questions to answer
It is high time the manager, who has been held in higher regard than anyone since Kenny Dalglish’s first spell at the club, spoke honestly.
Not the enraged Klopp when his team is questioned, not the dodging Klopp who protects his team by avoiding the obvious.
Answers are needed at this point, hard truths: what exactly is going on with the Reds’ energy and power levels? Where has the urgency gone, the famous intensity?
There will be at least an element of understanding, or at least the benefit of the doubt for him, if he says something that fans don’t like or expect.
But pretending things are more or less there when we can blatantly see that Liverpool are a million miles out of form and the required standards fools no one and will only make the situation worse game by game.
National return and great European night
Let’s look ahead, then: the unforgiving accessories may just come at a decent time, as there’s no chance to dwell on what was undoubtedly one of the worst introductions of the last half decade.
Wolves at home at the weekend: They are good, they have a better midfield than us at the moment for sure, but again they lack attacking threats after an ACL injury to new striker Sasa Kalajdzic. We’ll have to be much better defensively than tonight, anyway.
Liverpool’s only job at the moment is to regain last season’s control in the middle, long-standing aggressiveness throughout the pitch and a bit of confidence throughout.
After that, we go straight back to Europe with our first group game at home and it’s against Ajax.
If you think that Napoli’s passing and movement were good tonight, now you can start to worry a lot about the Dutch team coming to town: on Matchday 1, Mohammed Kudus and company were the best players.
