Is Jürgen Klopp threatened with expulsion ?: "Nightmare" Naples tears Liverpool FC to pieces

On Wednesday, Domenico Tedesco and then Thomas Tuchel will fly after bankruptcies in the Champions League.

Is Jürgen Klopp threatened with expulsion ?: "Nightmare" Naples tears Liverpool FC to pieces

On Wednesday, Domenico Tedesco and then Thomas Tuchel will fly after bankruptcies in the Champions League. A little later, Liverpool goes down 4-1 in Naples. Coach Jürgen Klopp's team also got off to a brilliant false start. Is the legend now facing a similar fate?

Thomas Tuchel? Fired at Chelsea! Domenico Tedesco? Kicked out by RB Leipzig! No wonder that after Liverpool FC's clear 1: 4 at SSC Naples, the first jokers are also concerned with a possible departure of the coaching legend Jürgen Klopp. Not only is he in his darned seventh year, but he is also heading towards a veritable crisis situation with the Reds. The English Premier League club messed up the start of the season, and things are no different in the Champions League.

"Humiliation for Liverpool ripped to pieces by Naples," headlined the Guardian, widely known for its reticence, after Diego Armando Maradona's defeat at the Stadio. "Nightmare in Naples," wrote the "Daily Mirror" and spoke of a "horror show" by the Reds, one of the dominant teams in Europe in recent years. It wasn't far from that. That much is certain.

At half-time, Napoli led 3-0 through goals from Piotr Zielinski, Andre-Frank Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone, and they missed a penalty. After Zielinski's second goal of the evening, only Luis Diaz was able to keep the result within a tolerable, albeit historic frame. The 4-1 defeat was the Reds' heaviest defeat in Europe since the 1960s.

"Today's evening is not so easy to digest, but it can be explained," said Klopp after the game. "Naples played really well and we didn't. It's clear what went wrong. But I can't say why it happened. I have to think about that. It's really hard to digest, but I have to digest it."

Last season, Liverpool fought to the last for the historic chance to win the quadruple of League Cup, FA Cup, league and Champions League. In the end, however, the trophies from the two national cup competitions remained. In the league, Manchester City saved a narrow lead across the finish line, while in the Champions League, gum-chewing Carlo Ancelotti ensured Klopp's third defeat in a pot final after 2013 (with Borussia Dortmund) and 2018 (with Liverpool).

Over the summer, the Reds not only lost Sadio Mané to FC Bayern, they also lost their drive. Midfield has little control over the game, with the rebalancing of attack around €75m striker Darwin Núñez far from complete. In addition, the team, which lost in the Premier League at Manchester United and only drew against Fulham, Crystal Palace and Everton, is currently lacking in greed and, to some extent, in mentality.

"We don't work as a team," said Klopp. "It looks a bit like we need to reinvent ourselves. There are a lot of things missing, not in all games but currently. The exciting thing is that we have to do it in a running season. We have to have a set- find up to get better at basically everything."

He was particularly frustrated by the midfield around veteran James Milner, who made way for Thiago after 63 minutes, as well as 19-year-old Harvey Elliot and six Fabinho. "We lacked the compactness. On the defensive and offensive. I can't remember any counter-pressing situation before Thiago came on."

Klopp has already identified his team's problem areas and it is therefore not surprising that planning for the coming season has already begun. According to media reports, young Dortmund star Jude Bellingham will play a central role in this. The 19-year-old Englishman is under contract with BVB until the end of June 2025. But it would be tantamount to a Dortmund championship to see the midfielder in the Westfalenstadion by then. BVB should imagine a fee around the 100 million euro mark, a sum that is currently more than imaginable in England.

For now, however, Klopp will have to draw on the current staff and make it past his seventh year itching. He doesn't believe that a fate similar to Thomas Tuchel's will befall him. "Not really, but who knows," said the 55-year-old late in the evening in Naples. Referring to Chelsea's nervous new owner, he added: "The difference is that we have different types of owners. Ours are calmer and expect me to fix it and not someone else does. That's the way they think. If they ever change their minds, maybe they'll tell me."

(This article was first published on Thursday, September 08, 2022.)