DBasia.news – Liverpool’s journey in the 2022-2023 Champions League was not too smooth. It started with the first match of Group A against Napoli at the San Paolo. The Reds had to accept defeat with a score of 1-4.
Piotr Zielinski’s 4 goals were scored by Piotr Zielinski (5′ penalty, 47′), Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (31′) and Giovanni Simeone (44′), while 1 consolation goal from Liverpool was scored by Luis Diaz (49′).
Liverpool completely dominated the game with 62% of the ball, but Luciano Spalletti’s hosts played more efficiently with 38% of the ball and 9 shots on target.
The performance shown by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool is quite surprising, considering the mainstay players who have succeeded in recent years there such as Mohamed Salah, Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
2 football legends, Fabio Cannavaro and Clarence Seedorf, also commented on the match and provided their analysis. Cannavaro, with his experience as a former defender, sees the way Liverpool defend.
“All the players were focused on the ball and a simple one-two combination was enough for Napoli to score,” Cannavaro said of Anguissa’s goal, as quoted from Football-Italy.
“Of course, it was a big blow for Liverpool, the players were out of position and they conceded the second goal. For the fourth goal, it’s an easy ball to read. Two centre-backs like Liverpool have to be able to defend in these situations.”
“They were slow mentally. Just look at the way they conceded goals. (Joe) Gomez is an international player and he lost possession twice in his half. Napoli had a strong start, and had 2 penalties so Liverpool appeared confused.”
While Seedorf thinks simply by seeing that there is something wrong in Liverpool’s approach. The AC Milan legend thinks Liverpool, with their experience, don’t play like they did against Napoli.
“Teams like Liverpool are used to playing with top teams so the approach, in my opinion, it’s worse. Mistakes are normal, but too slow mentally,” said Seedorf.