Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp criticised himself and some of his players for Wednesday’s 1-0 loss against Napoli in the UEFA Champions League, highlighting Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino as squad members who struggled.
He also urged patience over Naby Keita’s injury picked up in the match.
The German Tactician said, “Sometimes Bobby Firmino ran too long with the ball, or Sadio Mane ran too long. When that happens, you cannot produce. The midfielders or the full-backs tried to go forward, but we lost the ball and had to go back in the other direction.”
He continued, “It was intense, but we caused the intensity of the game ourselves. It was an interesting looking group before we started and it’s still interesting now. We want to play better than we did tonight, but even if we don’t play brilliantly, we want a result. Tonight we weren’t as good as we could be.”
Lorenzo Insigne scored the only goal of the contest on Wednesday, a late and deserved winner for the hosts. The Partenopei took control of the midfield battle after half-time and had several great chances to take the lead before Insigne finished things off.
The Reds’ lack of offensive production was telling.
While Mane and Firmino struggled, many fans turned their attention to Mohamed Salah after the contest. The Egyptian has endured a relatively poor start to the season and was largely invisible on Wednesday.
His poor performance stood out because Daniel Sturridge and Xherdan Shaqiri have been in good form yet started on the bench, and many argued Klopp should have gone to the duo as soon as he noticed his regular starters weren’t playing well:
The result leaves Napoli in the lead in Group C after their draw against Red Star Belgrade on the opening matchday. Liverpool are tied with Paris Saint-Germain in second place, and while the Reds beat the Ligue 1 champions already, PSG were much improved on Wednesday.
The Reds have little time to recover from this setback as they’ll face defending Premier League champions Manchester City on Sunday. Winless in their last three, Liverpool have serious question marks heading into that contest.
The Citizens also disappointed against Hoffenheim in midweek but got the job done in a 2-1 win. They have won four straight across all competitions.