Liverpool Rewind: Winners, Losers And Ratings
Liverpool Rewind: Winners, Losers And Ratings. Liverpool were beaten by a score of 4-1 against Napoli on a night to forget for Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, and those players who wore the Liverpool shirt. As an opening match for their Champions League campaign, however, it was embarrassing to say the least – their worst European defeat since 1966.
Despite a heavy defeat in the first half, many individual players had their moments on the pitch. The Italians came out swinging and scored three goals in just 45 minutes with Piotr Zielinski, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, and Giovanni Simeone all finding their way on the scoresheet. They also missed a penalty shot by Victor Osimhen.
With a goal in the opening seconds after Alisson saved his initial shot, it didn’t look like things would get any better; within two minutes of the restart, Zielinski made it 4-0.
Luis Diaz scored a goal just after Liverpool took a 1-0 deficit in their match against Tottenham on Saturday. Although it was the only highlight of the match, Klopp’s team showed that they are having problems so far this season.
The Napoli coach was overjoyed as he heard from the Jurgen Klopp, probably because he knew his team would beat them.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is appreciative of Antonio Spalletti and the Italian’s skills as a coach. After Napoli crushed Liverpool, Klopp understands more than ever how talented an opponent Napoli are.
The Italian champions were brilliant, sharp and clever with their movement, exposing Liverpool’s terrifyingly-high defensive line repeatedly, and playing their way through midfield with composure, belief and bags of quality.
Napoli had an excellent game with all the top performers including Victor Osimhen. Amazingly, Napoli also had a coach in Maurizio Sarri who was exceptional outside of the penalty miss.
Luis Diaz: Even though the Colombian starter was putting up a good fight, there wasn’t much mindfulness among his team-mates. They were all ghosts in the engine room of this terrible game.
Diaz scored Liverpool’s consolation goal, which came in the second half, with a very well taken 20 yarder.
To use one player as a stand-in for the entire team would have been silly – Diaz is not entitled to ask where the rest of the team was on this night. However, he did display an admirable mentality in not giving up and fighting for everything he had that contributed to Liverpool’s fight back.
Thiago Alcantara made his long-awaited return from injury on Saturday, entering the game as a second-half substitute.
Thiago was in the game at the start of the second half, but he seemed to be playing with bite, control and class. He won all of his duels on this day and offered a glimmer for what could be for a better future.
The Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is surely aware now that his team is in an crisis. What has happened and can he fix it? These are the burning questions, and this loss should set off alarm bells for the Reds.
Liverpool performed poorly for the first 45 minutes tonight. They usually don’t play as poorly as they currently are which is why, despite going down 0-1 in the game’s first minute, this was surprising. It is not just bad football but poor accuracy and coordination as well.
Joe Gomez has generally gone well this season, returning to the heart of Liverpool’s defense. However, he was absolutely terrorized here putting in an extremely poor performance.
It began with the woeful attempt to play offside which allowed Osimhen to score in the first minute. Then you have this dallying on the ball which led to a goal if it weren’t for Van Dijk’s goalline clearance soon after. The team was unable to deal with Khvaratskhelia, who scored Napoli’s third goal.
Abandoned by his captain, the game made Gomez seem nervous, blurring his vision. He quickly lost control of the ball, with Napoli going after him for 45 minutes.
James Milner: He’s a great player, but on the field of play James is struggling.
Manuel Lanzini showed little that he could bring to this game in his play, and despite enduring an hour of the match, he was clearly outclassed. But his handball led to Napoli’s game-winning goal, less than a minute in. He was eventually booked for a reckless lunge on the pitch, and showed grit throughout the match. His age and his inexperience seem to make it unlikely that he’ll ever have another outing like this.
Liverpool Ratings
Defence
Alisson Becker (6/10) made a huge save to keep out the penalty that Osimhen had just scored, but his teammates couldn’t take advantage of it and he saved himself from conceding.
Trent Alexander-Arnold demonstrated skills with the ball, but was missing defensively and not always involved in defensive content.
Joe Gomez (3/10): Started poorly, performing terribly on defense and let in the first goal out of several. As a result he was replaced at the half by Matip.
Virgil van Dijk had a bad game (4/10). Napoli’s movement found holes in the Liverpool line, and the Dutchman was a part of it. He conceded a penalty, cleared one off the line and generally looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
Midfield
Jorginho (4/10): Missing in action as Anguissa scored a second goal, and played around in midfield. Looks leggy and overworked.
After making just his second Champions League appearance, Harvey Elliott struggled to find a way to keep control of the game. James Milner did well to last as long as he did, but was booked in the first ten minutes and gave away a penalty inside four.
Salah missed a great chance and came close with another shot on the rebound before being saved by Meret. Diaz was one of the few who tried to take the game to Napoli, but really only to do so when Liverpool couldn’t keep up or match them. He scored a fantastic finish and denied a second goal after an excellent backpass. Firmino failed to show much indication of his past week’s efficiency and had little impact.
Joel Matip (6/10): Brought on at half time and immediately became exposed in defense. He did the job well after that. Diogo Jota (5/10): On for Salah, but failed to do anything significant. Darwin Nunez (5/10): Had one shot blocked, but did nothing else.
Thiago Alcantara made a surprising return to the starting XI in injury time, but was unable to save the team from an harrowing evening. Arthur made his debut towards the end of the game—but it turned out to be a disheartening experience.
Jurgen Klopp (out of 10) said that his side was not prepared to handle the energy and movement Liverpool showed in the first half. If he had made a team selection after only 45 minutes, he could have used 10 subs for halftime.
Read More: Jurgen Klopp Says Liverpool “plays not as a team” in warning over loss to Napoli