Liverpool’s machine looks broken in Naples
It was a tough day for Champions League-winning German coaches in the Premier League but while Thomas Tuchel’s travails with Chelsea are now over, Jurgen Klopp’s problems are an ongoing concern following Liverpool’s chastening 4-1 defeat to Napoli.
The result equalled the biggest defeat that the club has suffered in the Champions League and it could have been far worse. Alisson saved a penalty and Virgil van Dijk cleared from near the line in the first half. Napoli’s substitutes were wasteful late on.
There were individual errors to alarm. Joe Gomez was culpable on three occasions and hooked at half-time. Trent Alexander-Arnold appears to regard it as an affront to his creative instincts to sully himself with tracking runners. Van Dijk looked sluggish.
But it was the fourth starting defender who summed up the problem facing his fellow defenders when speaking afterwards. “We were miles too open,” explained Andy Robertson. “You cannot come to a place like this and not be compact.”