WE’RE OVER
Days of truth as Klopp works to sort mess out
JURGEN KLOPP made his Liverpool players sit through the ‘horror show’ performance against Napoli which he has called “the worst game we played since I was here.”
The Kop boss delivered a video nasty in a bid to inspire his charges after what he admitted was the worst performance by his side since he arrived in 2015.
The Reds were thrashed 4-1 in last week’s Champions League opener against the Serie A side in Naples.
After the weekend’s matches were postponed, Klopp has had a week to go through his side’s shocker ahead of tonight’s clash with Ajax and he ripped into his side.
“Lots of thoughts,” said Klopp.
“Meeting with the players, I watched the game back plenty of times and it was a real horror show, to be honest.
“We showed the boys the situations as well.
“They knew but seeing it again makes it really obvious.
“It was the worst game we played since I was here.
“We had a few bad games — everyone remembers Aston Villa and some others where we were just not up to speed but there were always glimpses in these games. In this particular game: nothing.
Below
“Eight out of 11 were below their level and the three others were not on a top level, just a normal game.
“It was not needed to say a lot about it but I did any way. Did I question the players?
“Generally no. In this situation, yes.
“Why would you do that? Why would we do that?
“There are four or five days now of absolute truth. We didn’t hide anything, we didn’t hold back anything, there was no need for that.
“We just said it how it is, but not to knock the players down or whatever, just to make sure where we are now is the starting point for us and we make sure we sort the problems together on the pitch.”
The Reds have conceded 10 goals in their opening seven games in what has been a shocking start to the season in the Premier League as well with just two wins from six.
And they face an Ajax side who have won all their league games this season to sit top of the Eredivisie standings.
They opened their Champions
League campaing with a 4-0 defeat of Rangers and then on Saturday beat Heerenveen 5-0 in the league, with Mohammed Kudus scoring twice having also been on target a few days earlier.
Klopp said: “We all have to realise it starts with defending.
“We have to celebrate to win a challenge again.
“If you do that, you can get some kind of momentum.
“There is no good game I can remember when a team played really good attacking and defensively was just a shambles.
“We are not over the moon about our season, we don’t play exceptional football.
“It looked like everyone wanted to sort the problem by himself.”
Liverpool did suffer a disastrous period during their title-defending season of 2020-21 when injuries wrecked their defence.
Struggle
But this feels like the first real struggle for Klopp at Anfield after seven previous seasons of rise and success.
“I have to do something, I can’t sit there and wait for how we react,” said Klopp.
“Is this the situation I wanted? No. But now you are in it you find it interesting and challenging.
“A lot of good things happen in the past and this team showed an incredible consistency over a long period and I know how this business works.
“I didn’t read a word — maybe 10 words altogether — what was said about us but most of the things were fair, probably.
“I watched the game back plenty of times and I would have asked a lot of questions about the people and the manager and the specific players.
“It is absolutely OK but it cannot be our biggest problem at this moment and we have to respond.”
Liverpool will be without Andy Robertson until after the international break after he suffered a knee injury.