Liverpool were dire in their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Napoli on Wednesday. It seemed the Reds would escape with a draw but Lorenzo Insigne had other plans with a goal in the last minute.
We should have conceded more but Alisson kept us in the game with a number of fine saves.
It was a rather unexplainable performance from the team. The midfield didn’t have a presence while the attack was toothless.
We started with our preferred front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah but failed to hit the target.
Liverpool were taken apart by the home side on numerous occasions. Our game plan went down the drain as Naby Keita was replaced in the first 20 minutes.
Jordan Henderson was the replacement and our midfield of Georginio Wijnaldum and James Milner just didn’t do enough.
In fact, a stat from Dan Kennett shed some light on how our midfield underperformed.
There’s a gazillion reasons why the team didn’t function going forwards. But Hendo & Gini only playing 12 forward passes out of 87 is a big one.
*If* you can keep the front 3 quiet then you’re in with a shout because the Milner/Gini/Hendo midfield isn’t going to trouble you.— Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) October 3, 2018
There is no dynamism in this midfield and there wasn’t any link-up with the forwards, which reduced our attacking threat. We can’t expect one of the front three to drop back and receive the ball to make something happen. Keita could help the attack but we need the other midfielders to step up as well.
It will be interesting to see how Jurgen Klopp deals with this loss as we have Manchester City next.
This would be our toughest fixture of the season and hopefully, we can come up with all three points on Sunday.
