It is a good job Jurgen Klopp has got nothing much else to worry about in December.
At least a quiet festive month will now be livened up by a decisive group game in the Champions League qualification stages, that routine schedule given a nervy jolt.
It is not as though Liverpool have got a World Club Cup campaign, a Carabao Cup quarter-final and half a dozen Premier League games to take care of between now and the end of next month.
Oh, hang on a minute.
No wonder Klopp, even by his standards, cut a frantically animated figure towards the end of this disjointed contest.
Of course he might still have taken a strong team to Salzburg even if they had beaten Napoli here.
But had qualification and top spot been secured at Anfield, Klopp would have had the option of resting a good few if he wished.
That is why he wanted it done and dusted.
Instead, the champions will have to do it the hardish way in Salzburg.
At least he can look back on last season - when progression into the knockout stages also went to the final group game (against Napoli on Merseyside) - and see how that turned out.
Red Bull Salzburg are a dangerous, effervescent side but Liverpool should have too much for them.
Mind you, Klopp’s team will have to up their game from this level.
This was a performance scarred by unusual lapses in concentration and execution.
And there was no more glaring example of that than when Napoli pilfered a first half lead.
Maybe it was the momentary shock of seeing Virgil van Dijk’s face contort in agony that froze what was left of Liverpool’s defence midway through the first half.
Van Dijk was left prostrate and seemingly in pain after minor aerial combat with Dries Mertens and, for some reason, the centre-half’s team-mates seemed to suspend duties while their talisman lay flat.
Mertens did not stop, scampering unchallenged on to a Giovanni di Lorenzo long ball and drilling home an expert finish from a narrow angle.
VAR had two cracks at finding fault but decided there was neither an infringement against Van Dijk or a part of Mertens’ anatomy in an offside position.
While the VAR was labouring, the home fans seemed more concerned about the fallen Van Dijk.
Having seen, just a few minutes earlier, Fabinho succumb to what looked like and ankle injury, the spectre of a crocked Van Dijk loomed large.
The good news was that Van Dijk played on, the bad news was that Mertens’ strike stood.
Klopp was raging - probably at the overall sloppiness of his side, the uncharacteristic waywardness of passing and an attitude that suggested just a touch too much confidence.
No wonder Klopp’s frustration fizzed into a frenzy, earning him a pre-interval yellow card.
He might actually have been a touch frustrated with himself, having started with Joe Gomez, who eventually made way for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The change certainly gave Liverpool some added impetus and Roberto Firmino should have headed in a perfect Ox cross.
It was left to Dejan Lovren to show the Brazilian how it is done, arriving with impeccable timing to send James Milner’s sweet corner-kick beyond Alex Meret.
When VAR decided Lovren - en route to scoring - had not shoved Mertens out of his path (he had), it looked just like the sort of fillip that would set the stage for a full-blown Liverpool comeback.
But the equaliser was all Liverpool could manage and now they must produce a result in that final group game.
Klopp looked suitably despondent but soon became philosophical and optimistic.
So he should be. After all, it did not turn out too badly last season.
