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By Mark Lawrenson
MOTD pundit and former Liverpool defender
Sometimes that’s not the worst thing which can happen to a team, although the overdue defeat by Napoli of liverpool was a true smack in the face.
This season has coasted during their five Premier League games and had forgotten what it felt like to shed.
Sothis was a reminder of what happens in football if you lose your concentration if you’re winners of Europe or not and don’t take your chances.
In the seasons I played for Liverpool when we started our defence of the European Cup – 1984-85 and 1981-82 – that I was thinking’crikey, we’re here to be shot at’ maybe not’ah, we are the best group in Europe’.
Yes, we’ve been the very best the May, but that signifies nothing in September.
That’s some thing Klopp’s side need to address, and they have to keep churning the results out. It is a very long road back to the season’s closing in Istanbul.
Tuesday’s defeat was the sort of lesson each team needs periodically about the amount you need to stay in to keep winning matters, and it’s far from a disaster that it has come in Liverpool’s first match of the Champions League campaign, contrary to the best team they’ll confront in Group E.
The Reds didn’t perform at their standard in attack or defence however I do not think this result will affect their advancement to the stage.
Last year they made it from the skin of the teeth to the last 16 after dropping all three of the away group games.
But that was when they’d Napoli as well as Paris-St Germain within their group. This time around, the resistance is not the same calibre and that I just don’t see Liverpool completing under Salzburg or Genk.
That is the biggest reason why I see the defeat of Tuesday as a minor set-back, because I am confident they will still qualify.
A 0-0 draw could have been a good outcome for Liverpool, and they were less than 10 minutes away from getting it until things unravelled at the back.
I’m far from sure it was a punishment for the primary target of Napoli – the first time that I saw it, the further I find it, although I thought it was the decision that is right the less I agree it should have been given.
But it was a idle challenge by Andy Robertson on Jose Callejon, that lent the referee the chance to give a spot-kick at the first place.
When Napoli scored their second goal in injury time, it killed the match completely, and Virgil van Dijk was accountable for that.
When they’re in possession at the back, to concede from a mistake like that is very unlike Liverpool normally, and Van Dijk particularly.
Two errors cost Klopp’s negative, however I still do not really think they were too poor until there at the back.
They were playing against a gifted Napoli group with plenty of intention, who forced Adrian into making some great saves – especially his flying stop by Dries Mertens .
Nevertheless, it isn’t as when Liverpool struggled defensively for 90 minutes, and I am sure he’ll believe the biggest problem at the night when it is analysed by Klopp was at the opposite end of the pitch.
Liverpool saved their lacklustre attacking performance of this season.
Part of this has been down to the resistance; Napoli were powerful at the back, with Kalidou Koulibaly.
However, Liverpool ought to have done better when they came and it was irritating to see the ball go so often when they did have chances.
Mohamed Salah compelled one fantastic save however, overall, they were not clinical enough if they got into some promising rankings.
If that occurs, whenever you’re facing a team as good as 21, you are always going to be punished – and that is precisely what happened.
Mark Lawrenson was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
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