Liverpool’s poor preseason form continued as they lost 3-0 in a friendly against Napoli in Edinburgh on Sunday.
On their summer tour of the U.S., the European champions failed to win as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Sporting CP at New York’s Yankee Stadium, having lost 3-1 against Borussia Dortmund at Notre Dame Stadium and 2-1 to Sevilla at Fenway Park.
In Scotland, Jurgen Klopp fielded a strong XI with Virgil van Dijk in defence, Jordan Henderson and Gigi Wijnaldum in midfield and Divock Origi up front. However, they almost went behind early on as a sloppy pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold gave the Italian side a chance which was wasted.
It mattered little though as, moments later, Napoli went ahead. Joel Matip allowed Lorenzo Insigne to run at the defence and the forward curled a fine effort beyond Simon Mignolet.
Liverpool looked lacklustre and in the 28th minute they were sliced open again, this time with Arkadiusz Milik providing the finish to make it 2-0.
Immediately after the break, Andy Robertson and James Milner both put in hard tackles on Jose Callejon and seemed more fired up. Fabinho tested goalkeeper Alex Meret from distance but the Reds’ intensity didn’t pay off as Napoli got a third.
Insigne, again, was the catalyst as his shot was turned away by Mignolet but fell to Amin Younes to score.
Napoli were in total control, although substitute Harry Wilson went close with a free kick.
New 16-year-old signing Harvey Elliott came on for Liverpool in the final stages to make his debut and Meret was forced to make a save to keep his clean sheet, but the game was long since over and Klopp has a battle on his hands to get his players ready for the new season with just two weeks to go until their Premier League opener against Norwich on Aug.9.