Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool’s win over Napoli offered a reminder they are still “a top team”, though he acknowledges they cannot rest on the achievements of last season.
The Reds got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over the Serie A leaders in their final Champions League group-stage game, with both sides heading through to the knockout rounds.
Late goals for Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez helped rebound from the latest disappointment of a difficult season, with Liverpool having lost late on to Leeds United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Klopp says his team know they have quality, but they need to sometimes take stock of themselves in order to achieve the right results amid a tough campaign.
“We don’t doubt the quality, I don’t think anybody doubts the quality,” he said. “But that’s part of the problem as well – we don’t show consistency.
“That’s why we have to [take] a proper step back, and tonight we did that.”
“We are Liverpool, a top team. Nobody forgot what we did last year, the boys didn’t forget that, but it’s now not important really. I know people might get sick of it when I say it, but we really have to fight through.
“We showed everything. We showed pieces of good football, and the defensive stuff was on a high level.
“Napoli [are] a real force, really, and it could have been extremely difficult for us tonight, but the boys played a good game and that’s why it was not.
“Tonight we will take the right conclusions of this game, even when the next one will be a completely different game for different reasons. We will take the good stuff out of this game and then start the next fight against Tottenham.”