Difficult for Reds to

London:champions League finalists just six months ago, Liverpool hoped a summer of heavy investment could take them one step further to a sixth European Cup, but a shock 2-0 defeat to Red Star Belgrade leaves them struggling to even make it out of the group stages.

While Anfield remains a fortress on European nights for the Reds, a worrying trend is emerging for Juergen Klopp on the road, particularly with a visit to Paris Saint-germain to come next in three weeks’ time.

Liverpool didn’t manage a single shot on target in losing 1-0 at Napoli last month and were also opened up in a 4-2 defeat to Roma in the second leg of last season’s semi-final, progressing only thanks to a 5-2 first leg win.

“I saw, unfortunately, a few games like this already and it’s really difficult to find your mojo back,” surmised Klopp.

All is far from lost.four points from their last two games would be enough to guarantee the Reds’ a last 16 spot. However, losing to what should have been the whipping boys of the group has made their task much harder.

“We need to make sure it will not happen again, otherwise it will be difficult because the next game is an away game again and the last one is a very difficult home game against Napoli,” added Klopp. “We have to make sure in Paris we do better. There were a lot of moments when we could get in control of the game and we didn’t do it, we made the wrong decisions.”

The prolific front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, who combined for 91 goals last season, have all suffered a downturn in form at different stages through the first three months of the campaign. Over £160 million was spent on new recruits, but only goalkeeper Alisson Becker has become a first-team regular as midfielders Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri have largely been left on the sidelines.

Klopp needs to find a way to utilise his new resources and rediscover Liverpool’s mojo quickly to avoid an embarrassing early European exit.