Liverpool embarrassed in Naples as Jurgen Klopp faces a battle to steady the ship

Passion, desire, intensity; where has it all gone?

Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp have been almost robotic in their approach with high pressing and ‘rock and roll’ football.

The 2022/23 season has so far almost acted as a throw back to the final months of Brendan Rodgers.

A team having been successful in recent years and been a joy to watch have become the complete opposite.

An alarming lack of desire and effort has sent fans online into meltdown.

The Reds travelled to Napoli with an uphill task on their hands as the hosts have started their league campaign in brilliant form.

Liverpool on the other hand have been miles off the pace required to even scrape a top four finish never mind challenge for the title.

Mere moments after the first whistle, the home side were awarded a penalty to send them 1-0 up.

A poor attempt at a block from James Milner with a bafflingly out-stretched arm led to the referee pointing to the spot.

With the Liverpool defence being torn apart and pulled every way possible by the sensational Victor Osimhen, a second penalty was awarded with Van Dijk clipping the Nigerian.

A moment of relief came when Alisson got a hand to the resulting spot kick.

The respite did not last for long however as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho and Joe Gomez stood almost statuesque as Napoli danced around them to make it 2-0.

One or two fleeting moments of promise from youngster Harvey Elliott were not enough to inspire the senior professionals around him.

The players on the pitch seemed unbothered and accepting that a heavy defeat was coming their way.

You’d expect football players with such high profiles and serial winners to be be embarrassed by such a showing.

Apparently, this was not the case as James Milner was lucky not to be sent off with multiple lazy fouls in the first half and Gomez and Alexander-Arnold continuing to give opposition players the freedom of Naples.

The host went into the break 3-0 up as they created another extremely easy chance from their left hand side and no Liverpool defender thought to mark Simeone in the middle of the six yard box.

Surprisingly, only Joe Gomez was withdrawn at the break as any player on the pitch could have been replaced and had no complaints.

Within moments of the restart it was 4-0 as another simple ball over the top and runners from midfield was too much for the Reds to cope with.

An almost stubborn urge to continually play a high line that evidently is not working will have left fans scratching their heads.

4-0 the score line but in all honesty it could have been double that margin as Napoli were teaching Liverpool a lesson.

In years gone by, Jurgen Klopp’s team were handing out these beatings to teams all over the globe but now they are experiencing the other end of the stick.

A Luis Díaz consolation was nowhere near enough to even dampen the humiliation that had unfolded in Italy.

A spineless performance from so many experienced, world-renowned footballers left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Humbled and embarrassed in the opening Champions League game of the season, Klopp has many problems to fix.

Let’s hope we see some form of reaction on Saturday against Wolves, although we are starting to say that a bit too often…