Liverpool missed Jordan Henderson’s leadership in scrappy Ajax win

Liverpool beat Ajax 0-1 in a game oozing Champions League novelty.

With all due respect to the entire Liverpool squad, Jurgen Klopp was forced to field the weakest XI for Liverpool in the UCL.

We saw exciting Academy product Curtis Jones make his Champions League debut. As expected, the young lad brought intensity to midfield, panache and loads of maturity. We have a serious player on our hands and it was encouraging to see him make his debut on Wednesday night.

The boys dug deep, pressed high, communicated well and ended up beating Ajax by a sole Nicolas Tagliafico own goal. (Well, everyone communicated well except Joe Gomez and Adrian in the second minute!)

Liverpool’s make shift defence, as expected, was shaky and vulnerable. Adrian wasn’t making things easy for the back line or himself as he was sloppy on a couple of occasions within the first 15 minutes, although Fabinho was outstanding. Did Liverpool miss out on Jack Butland?

There were moments in the game where Ajax beat Liverpool at their very own pressing game and we could see an animated Klopp furiously yelling. However, Liverpool settled and had majority of the possession, but were unable to make any meaningful contribution in front of goal in the first half.

Liverpool were gifted the lead through an own goal through Tagliafico. The way the night was progressing, to be honest, Liverpool seemed like they needed the bit of luck that they got.

This game had a little of everything, an own goal, a goal line clearance, intense pressing, sloppy passes and much more. From Liverpool’s perspective, there was lack of leadership on the pitch which Klopp fixed by bringing Jordan Henderson on at half time.

Davy Klaassen came close to getting the game on level terms early in the second half as his effort hit the post. Other than that, the second half was quite scrappy.

The major highlight was a triple change by Liverpool that saw Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah all came off together in the 60th minute as they were replaced by Diogo Jota, Xherdan Shaqiri and Takumi Minamino.

Overall, the game pretty much played out as expected, but with a little less zing than we’d have liked. A win in the opener, away from home, checks all the important boxes for Liverpool.

Man of the Match: Fabinho

Moment of the match: Liverpool’s front three coming off together.