After Chelsea’s defeat against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday, there came another chastening result for a Premier League side on Wednesday as Liverpool was hammered 4–1 away to Napoli. The Premier League’s net spend may have been 27 times greater than that of any other league this summer, but that is not guarantee of success, no security against embarrassment.
Liverpool has been nowhere near its best so far this season, but this was the worst performance so far. Perhaps it is the consequence of injuries and a hangover from last season, when it came so close to a quadruple, costing it a little of the sharpness so necessary to the hard-pressing style of play favored by Jürgen Klopp. Or perhaps the issue is longer-term, more deep-rooted. Liverpool, suddenly, is a side that is starting to look old. It was two of the senior players, James Milner and Virgil van Dijk, who conceded penalties in the opening 17 minutes, while Mohamed Salah and Fabinho both had anonymous nights. Joe Gomez, withdrawn at halftime, must have wished his night had been anonymous.
Napoli, by contrast, had the brightest young player on the pitch in the 21-year-old Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. It was his dart in from the left and square pass to Matteo Politano that led to the opening goal after five minutes as Milner, crouching with his arm weirdly extended, deflected the ball wide with his hand. Piotr Zieliński calmly converted the penalty to make this the 12th game in the last 16 in which Liverpool has conceded the first goal.
