JURGEN KLOPP suffered another Napoli nightmare – then apologised to the club’s travelling fans.
The German, who had lost his previous three matches here as a boss, walked over and apologised to the supporters after his team had been ripped apart.
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Napoli, who missed their second penalty of the evening at 1-0, scored through Piotr Zielinski (two), Andre-Frank Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone.
Luis Diaz pulled one back for the Reds – but it never looked like being anything more than a consolation strike.
Klopp, whose keeper Alisson saved Victor Osimhen’s penalty when losing 1-0, said: “It is a long flight from Liverpool to Napoli. It was a very disappointing night so I have to say sorry to them.
“The problems we had was obvious. Number one, Napoli played a really good game and we played a really bad one.
“Why? We cannot ignore the really bad start, the penalty and the other penalty But we didn’t play good enough.
“The question is why the boys did not play a good game because they want to so it is my job to work it out. It is my responsibility.
“It was really tough, tough to take but not that difficult to explain when you saw the game.”
Klopp was also asked whether he feared the sack after a terrible night.
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The Kop boss said: “Not really but who knows? There are different kind of owners. Our owners are rather calm and expect from me to sort the situation and not expect that someone else will sort it.
“That is how they always saw it and on the day they change their thoughts they might tell me.”
Still shell-shocked over the abysmal performance, with Liverpool yet to win away this season, the German added: “You don’t think a lot after the game – you react more.
“We have to kind of reinvent ourselves, so basic things were not there. It is a difficult period, no doubt about that but if you are not playing exceptionally well you still can defend on a really high level.
“We should be able to do that. If you concede a penalty after three minutes and then another after 10 minutes you cannot do that.
“It is a job to do. It is not that we have to invent a new kind of football, we have to improve.
“Everybody would be happy if we could play the stuff we used to play. This was the least compact performance I saw from us for a long long time.
“Napoli were really good but we made it easy for them. We lost the ball in areas and the next situation was a counter-attack.
“The reason why it is like this is getting clearer but I need time to say the right things because at the moment it is not 100 percent clear.”
‘NAPOLI MILES BETTER’
Liverpool had lost their previous two games here in southern Italy, while Klopp also suffered a defeat with Borussia Dortmund.
It is the seventh game in a row Liverpool have run less than their opponents and they now face Wolves on Saturday.
Left-back Andy Robertson said: “We were too open. You can’t come to a place like this and not be compact.
“They were the miles better team but when you miss one challenge you need someone to back his mate up but too many times we got turned and they had big open spaces.
“We have to get back to basics. We deserved this result the way we were wide open. In the first half in felt like they had an extra man.
“You know the crowd are going to be up and you have to be ready to fight.
“I don’t think we were close enough to our mate when we went to press the ball.”