Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s 1-0 Win over Ajax

We dig into the winners and losers of the Reds’ first Champions
League match of the season.

A wonderful occasion fell somewhat flat on Wednesday night, as
Liverpool battled their way to a hard-earned three points at the
Johan Cruijff ArenA, taking the spoils by way of a scrappy own goal
from Nicolás Tagliafico. Below, we take a quick look at some of the
winners and losers from the Reds’ opening fixture of their Champions League campaign.

Winners

Fábio Henrique Tavares: Much has — quite
rightly — been made of the season-ending injury suffered by Virgil
van Dijk as a result of Jordan Pickford’s assault in the Merseyside
derby at the weekend and how the Reds will deal with the Dutchman’s
absence for the remainder of the campaign. Joël Matip staying back
in Liverpool while the squad travelled to Amsterdam didn’t reduce
speculation the Reds would simply fall apart now that they would
have to rely on their 3rd and 4th choice defenders — whoever they
might be — for the rest of the year.

Like against Chelsea, however, Fabinho stepped up big. As they
did at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool dropped off more than they
typically have done when featuring van Dijk and Joe Gomez, ensuring the Brazilian wasn’t forced
to chase back facing his own goal too often.

Ajax’s choice to largely leave four players up front for
counters certainly meant that the visitors’ backline was kept
plenty busy throughout, but the makeshift partnership held their
opponents to two big chances — one of which would almost certainly
have been called back for offside had Adrián not saved it — and
when Dušan Tadić looked certain to have levelled the score right
before half-time, Fabinho popped up with an acrobatic clearance off
his line to secure the clean sheet.

They certainly won’t be as impenetrable at the back as they were
during their 18-month run leading up to the Premier League title,
but there is a chance the Liverpool defence won’t be completely
inept either.

A Winning Start: One-goal wins were a major
theme for the Reds last season, and while most of them looked more
competent than tonight, they’re all worth the same amount of
points, so getting three in the opening match and what is, on
paper, arguably the toughest fixture in the group, is absolutely
worth celebrating.

Liverpool’s midfield looked leggy and their frontline out of
sync, fluffing a number of excellent transition opportunities, but
these are hopefully just the early-season issues of a team that are
still finding their fitness after an exceptionally weird pre-season
and a ludicrously busy fixture list. Taking points in such period
could prove crucial later on.

Losers

Atmosphere: While the game itself didn’t
exactly live up to the billing as a clash between two phenomenal
attacking sides, the disappointment that the first match between
the two European giants in over 50 years had to be played in an
empty stadium may be even grander.

The scenes of a rambunctious traveling Kop combining with 40-odd
thousand Ajax fans for a belting rendition of You’ll Never Walk
Alone would have been — in the true sense of the word — epic, and
probably would have inspired a more memorable performance.
Hopefully it won’t be another 50 years until we get the chance
again.

Credit to the Opposition

A few years ago, many teams attempted to run with Liverpool in
the open field, inviting the heavy metal Reds to a transition
contest. More often than not, they succeeded, breaching Jürgen
Klopp’s defences for a score or two. That success usually came at
the cost of shipping anywhere from three to five goals at the other
end, though, so teams stopped doing that. In the past two seasons,
then, Liverpool games have largely been contests of patience, with
the Reds probing patiently at blocks of four and five, while the
opposition looks for the opportunity to create a chance or two on
the counter.

Despite the drab scoreline, tonight’s match was a bit of a
throwback, with Erik ten Hag consistently pushing players high up
the pitch in order to stress and harry his visitors into making
mistakes, but exposing his side to swift transitions the other way.
It nearly succeeded as well, and if not for a big save and a big
clearance, Ajax could have easily scored a few.

Certainly, the Reds had opportunities as well, and the front
three looked to have entirely forgotten how to do the things they
were so successful at in the past but have largely been denied in
recent seasons, but for a football purist like ten Hag, there will
absolutely be positives to take from tonight’s game.

What Happens Next

It’s fixture congestion time, as the Reds play five games in 14
days, starting with a visit from Rhian Brewster and Sheffield
United on Saturday, before they travel to Denmark to take on
Midtjylland in the next round of the Champions League next Tuesday.
Stay healthy, lads!