Jurgen Klopp conceded Liverpool’s 4-1 humbling at the hands of Napoli in the Champions League was their worst game since he took charge in 2015.
Liverpool were comprehensively beaten by the Serie A side in their opening game in Group A, the heaviest defeat by a Premier League side in their first game of a Champions League campaign since Arsenal lost 3-0 to Inter in 2003-04.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of their second group game at home to Ajax, Klopp did not hold back in his assessment of the “horror show” at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
After Premier League games were postponed following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Klopp also said his team would rather have played this weekend but “respected” the decision not to.
“Yes, we would have wanted to play,” he said. “But for the reasons we all know it didn’t happen and, of course, we respect that.
“Now we try to use the time for analysis and training, which made absolute sense after the game we played at Napoli.
“I have lots of thoughts [on the Napoli game]. I watched the game back plenty of times and it was a real horror show, to be honest.
“It was the worst game we played since I’m here. We’ve had a few bad games, I know that. Everyone remembers Aston Villa [7-2 loss in 2020-21] and some others where we were just not up to speed, but there were always glimpses in these games. In this particular game, [there was] nothing.
“You have to understand why that happens, it’s not a common thing, that’s more an individual thing. Eight out of 11 [players] were absolutely below their level, three others were not on top level, just [played] a normal game.
“In football it’s like this, you sort all individual problems as a team, and that’s the first thing we have to do, to follow a common idea again.
“Everything we did since I’m here and everything teams do in football is based on really solid, if not perfect, defending. That’s what we had to work on, and that’s what we did.”
