Andy Robertson has urged Liverpool to learn from the mistakes of last season as they begin their Champions League defence against Napoli this week.
The Reds travel to Italy for their first group game on Tuesday, taking on the Serie A runners-up at San Paolo.
It is the second season in a row they have run into Carlo Ancelotti’s side, having fought out two close affairs in last year’s group stage.
Jurgen Klopp’s team were beaten 1-0 on a disappointing night in Naples last October, but bounced back to win by the same scoreline at Anfield in December, progressing to the last 16 at the Italians’ expense. They would, of course, go on to lift the trophy at the end of the campaign.
Memories of that first Napoli game, though, are still fresh in Robertson’s mind.
“The result followed the performance and the performance wasn’t good enough,” he told reporters following Liverpool’s win over Newcastle on Saturday. “It was poor from our perspective in all the away games really last season in the group stages, we didn’t really perform. We need to be better than that.
“We know what Naples is like but now we can focus on it and it’s the start of us trying to retain the Champions League. We can look forward to that challenge. It starts in Naples, it doesn’t get much harder, but we look forward to it.”
