NAPLES, Italy — Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool deserved to get beat by Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday as they suffered their second defeat of the season when Lorenzo Insigne scored an injury-time goal for a 1-0 win at the Stadio San Paolo.
Napoli wasted a number of golden opportunities before Insigne’s late intervention, while Liverpool failed to record a single shot on target in a Champions League game for the first time since 2006.
“No attempts on target, I don’t remember when that happened last time,” Klopp told a news conference. “I think we had a big part of that because we can play much better.
“We don’t have a lot of set-pieces. No shot on target is not enough. They had a good game, we didn’t — that’s what they deserved the three points.”
Klopp said he felt Liverpool started the game OK but then failed to close down spaces at the right moments, allowing Napoli to play through their formation.
“Things like this happen, but not as often as they did tonight and it costs energy,” Klopp said. “Then when you have the ball you have to play much calmer.
“If you looked how we played you would have thought they were always on us — we could have played calmer, but we didn’t.
“The first half was kind of OK, but the second half was not good enough. It’s always a bad sign to say when your goalkeeper is your best player.
“In the 89th minute we make another tactical mistake, we didn’t close the gap between Joe [Gomez] and Virgil [van Dijk], and then we cannot react any more. It is the second time we have conceded the same kind of goal.
“A big part of that performance was my fault for sure, but I need at least one night to watch it again and see what was the fault. But it was not like it should have looked.”
Liverpool now turn their attention towards Sunday’s encounter with Manchester City at Anfield as they look to maintain their unbeaten start to the league campaign.
Naby Keita was taken to hospital after injuring his back 19 minutes into the Napoli defeat, although a source told ESPN FC on Wednesday evening that it was too early to determine when he would be a doubt for the meeting with the Premier League champions.
“It is a tough game, absolutely,” Klopp said. “It is absolutely intense since the last international break. We cannot change that, so we have to make sure we are ready.
“You were all full praise of our season and then tonight we didn’t perform. That happens. We don’t have to think about intensity. We have three days to recover and then we will face Man City.
“It would’ve been difficult any way at any time of the season — it is always difficult. Let’s have a look how the players are after the game and then we will prepare.
“Then we have the crowd at our backs. Tonight you could see Napoli used the atmosphere and we couldn’t calm it down, but on Sunday it will be 100 percent different.”