'I need time to say the right things': Liverpool's early-season flaws exposed by rampant Napoli

Liverpool came close to being crowned kings of Europe for a seventh time last season but Jurgen Klopp is looking for a reboot after his side were savagely swept aside by Napoli on Wednesday.

The Reds' early-season troubles showed no sign of going away at the Stadio Maradona, the 4-1 scoreline flattering them and leaving their coach wondering what he can do to pull his team out of a deepening slump.

"I need time to say the right things because at the moment it's not 100 percent clear," Klopp told reporters.

Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti said he didn't want to hear talk of his side dishing out a football lesson but there was only one team on the pitch until the hosts decided that they had dished out enough punishment.

It is telling that Spalletti brought off Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with over an hour to go, conserving the Georgian revelation for Napoli's weekend visit of Spezia and their trip to Rangers next week.

By that time Napoli had long since won the match and were happy to shut up shop knowing that Liverpool were incapable of hauling back a four-goal deficit which could have easily been double that.

"The problems we had tonight were obvious. Number one, Napoli played a really good game and we played a really bad game. We just didn't play well enough, we were never compact," Klopp added.

"For 60 minutes we had a lot of situations where we lost a lot of balls because we were too far away from everything."

Having 36-year-old James Milner and teenager Harvey Elliott in midfield didn't offer better results than when Liverpool were beaten at Old Trafford two weeks ago, with Piotr Zielinski and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa in complete control of the play.

Injuries to Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konate, Joel Matip and Diogo