While it is a tad too early to quip ‘Oh how the mighty have fallen!’, it is still staggering that Liverpool have won just two of their seven competitive matches this season since lifting the Community Shield, crashing out 4-1 to Napoli in the Champions League group stage.
Jurgen Klopp admitted that the video of his side’s 4-2 capitulation to the Serie A side was a “real horror show”, declaring it as the worst performance in his seven-year tenure at Anfield.
Having put everything on rewind and watched the game on replay numerous times, Klopp has held meetings with his players as part of his inquest before he tries to get back to the drawing board to get Liverpool back on track against Ajax on Tuesday night.
The German tactician concluded that eight of his team were lamentably poor in Italy and the other three were merely average as he singled out their defensive difficulties as being at the root of their problems.
“I watched the game back plenty of times and it was a real horror show,” he said. “We showed the boys the situations. They knew but seeing it again made it really obvious.
“It was the worst game we played since I came here. In other games, [the 2020 7-2 defeat at] Villa away, there were always glimpses of us. In this particular game, nothing.
“Pretty much eight of the 11 were below their level and the other three were not top level, just their usual game. You saw all individual problems as a game. You have to follow a common idea again and everything we did since I was here is based on a really solid if not nearly perfect defending. That is where it all starts and that is what we have to work on. We all have to realise it starts with defending.”
Liverpool have lost one of their defence, with Andrew Robertson injured and out of both the Ajax game and Sunday’s clash at Chelsea, if it indeed goes ahead as scheduled earlier. Midfielder Fabio Carvalho is available again after sitting out the trip to Naples, but Curtis Jones remains sidelined.