Just few months earlier, Liverpool may have been crowned the best team on earth. However not right now, when they have dropped points to Fulham and Brighton in the league standings and have suffered losses to both Nottingham Forest and Leeds.
However, Liverpool has twice overcome arguably the best team in the world game during a difficult season. With 13 straight wins, including triumphs away at Lazio, AC Milan, Ajax, and Roma with a historic thrashing of Liverpool in Italy, with 50 goals already this season, Napoli arrived to Anfield unbeaten, similar to Manchester City. They left with their now-familiar loss: Anfield feels like the last stop for the Neapolitans, just like it did for City.
None of these proves Liverpool's return with certainty. It would be unfair to imply as much given how difficult their season has been. They might make the same mistake again. On Sunday, they might stumble at Tottenham. They beat Napoli, although it wasn't nearly as convincing as when they were destroyed at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. While they were four down after 47 minutes in Italy and it could have been seven, it required two late goals at Anfield.
However, Liverpool did seem to complete a circle. In the depths of hopelessness and the interior of Napoli's concrete abode of horrors, two words from Klopp's post-match investigation took on a particularly pertinent meaning. One garnered greater media attention. He replied, "We have to recreate ourselves. Reinvention pointed at something more spectacular, but Napoli lost to something old rather than anything new.
Recently, Klopp has explored with 4-2-3-1, 4-2-4, a flat 4-4-2, and a diamond midfield, but Napoli was defeated thanks to a return to his preferred 4-3-3 formation. When we played well, we used the system we played the most frequently and were most comfortable with. We had to make a few adjustments and offer the boys something new to consider. But a hint of something different led to conflicting outcomes: a victory over City while using a 4-4-2 formation and a loss to Forest, a victory over Ajax in Amsterdam while using a diamond formation and a loss to Leeds in Liverpool. Despite the fact that the switch to a 4-3-3 is only temporary, Liverpool found comfort in their past. For us, it is always a possibility, said Klopp. Actually, there is no distinction from a diamond. "But there is a significant gap defensively. We simply need to choose what is best for us and who is participating".
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The finest component for Klopp, however, came from a phrase that Liverpool's last Champions League champion manager liked to repeat. Despite the fact that the German and Rafa Benitez are so different, both want their teams to be cohesive. The encounter, according to Klopp, "was the least precise display I saw from us for a long, long time," something he bemoaned again in Naples. When they had their second meeting, he thought, "Being compact makes all the difference. We are suddenly faced with obstacles in the appropriate areas. We are suddenly challenging to play against. The distance was there.”
Not the goal scorers Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez, not even a player who played the entire game, was the representative figure in that comeback. James Milner struggled in Naples' flimsy midfield, which appeared to be made up of three players who were frequently sprinting in various directions and appeared to be spaced far apart. When Liverpool's revenge mission arrived, Klopp seemed to have resorted to the triple workhorse midfield concept, which performed flawlessly without being particularly impressive. They have traditionally employed this technique to suffocate rivals. Its shape is ideal for the members of Klopp's squad.
He stated, "We had some excellent matches in the other system, especially in the Champions League where we also played pretty well in the 4-4-2. "That is the season's lone positive development to yet. that we performed well and triumphed in various systems—not frequently enough, but at least a few times."
One victory, even over a team that has a strong case for being the greatest in the world during the past three months, was insufficient for him to get overconfident. The damning fact is that Liverpool has only lost by one point this season and already has more victories in the Champions League than in the Premier League.
There have been infrequent reminders of what they are capable of and numerous demonstrations of their weaknesses. We are confident in the quality, stated Klopp. No one denies the quality, yet it is also a small portion of the issue. Thus, we exhibit inconsistency.
And it might be said that in the two games where they felt like underdogs, they did well. It fits Klopp's mindset, determination to fight, and ability to defeat the more favored team. Liverpool has won too infrequently while favorites in the Premier League, though. They must outperform the competition in order to be the best.
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