Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool need to “kind of reinvent ourselves” after accepting his side are in a difficult moment following a chastening Champions League night.
The Reds suffered their heaviest defeat in Europe in 56 years when they were thumped 4-1 by Napoli in Italy on Wednesday night in their Group A opener.
Luis Diaz’s second-half strike was mere consolation after Piotr Zielinski had scored twice – one a penalty – with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone also netting for the home side.
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The defeat could have been even heavier with Alisson Becker saving another spot kick from Victor Osimhen and Virgil van Dijk making a fine goalline clearance.
Liverpool have now won only two of their last seven games in all competitions and are already off the pace in the Premier League title battle. And Klopp reaffirmed his immediate post-match assessment to television that it may be time for the Reds have a reset.
“You don’t think a lot after a game, you react more,” said the Liverpool boss. “(But) when I said that, it’s true. We have to kind of reinvent ourselves, because the basic things were not there.
“It’s a difficult period, no doubt about that. But if you are not playing exceptionally well you still can defend on a really high level and we should be able to do that. But in the moment we are kind of in between.
“It’s not that we have to invent a new kind of football. You can always try to improve but in this moment everybody would be happy if we could play similar stuff to how we used to play, let me say it like this.
“A few things are really clear we have to change and the reason it’s now like this is getting a bit more clear as well. But I need time for saying the right things, because at the moment it’s not 100% clear.”
Klopp was unhappy with Liverpool’s lack of pressure in midfield which was constantly exposed by Napoli during an alarmingly damaging first half.
“The problems we had tonight were obvious,” said the Reds boss. “Number one, Napoli played a really good game and we played a really bad game. Why did we play a bad game? We cannot ignore the start, how it happened with the penalty and then shortly after another penalty and the intense atmosphere was not easy.
“Our problem is we just didn’t play good enough. Tonight was the least compact performance I’ve seen from us in a long, long time, and other teams as well. We had for 60 minutes not one counter-pressing situation, we were far away from everything and wide in possession. The midfield is not connected, these are the football things and they are obvious.
“Napoli were really good but we made it easy for them because we lost the ball in areas and the next situation was a counter-attack, that’s not how it should be.
“Because I know the boys want to play a good game it’s obviously my job to figure out why we didn’t. It’s not the first time we didn’t play particularly well. But I really think with all the things that happened tonight we should have played a much better game. We didn’t and that’s my responsibility.
“I really think it makes sense to watch the game back and try to understand and have the right message for the boys, because that’s the most important thing.”
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