After the horror show in Naples, the death of the British queen gave Liverpool what will be a rarity this season: a break.
Jürgen Klopp made four changes to the side that were thrashed by Napoli. Thiago Alcântara, Diogo Jota and Joël Matip all returned from injury, seeing James Milner, Darwin Nuñez and Joe Gomez drop to the bench, while Andy Robertson was ruled out by injury, seeing Kostas Tsimikas take his place at left-back. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Unlike Liverpool, Ajax didn’t get a weekend off. Alfred Schreuder made just one change to the team that demolished Heerenveen on Saturday, swapping Davy Klaassen for Steven Berghuis. Ajax lined up in a 4-2-1-3 shape.
Ajax attempted to press Liverpool high up the pitch, but were never really able to trouble them. They used a mixture of man and zonal marking that somehow managed to mix the worst aspects of both. Wingers Dusan Tadic and Steven Bergwijn would take up narrower positions, but once Alisson Becker had passed to one of the centre-backs, Mohammed Kudus would shift across to pressure the man on the ball. Whereas Tadic would typically drop off to follow Tsimikas when Kudus pressed Matip, when the Ghanaian moved across to Virgil van Dijk, Bergwijn would step up to press Matip, aiming to stop Liverpool from playing simple balls between the centre-backs. Bergwijn stepping up inevitably left Trent Alexander-Arnold free though, or required the immobile Daley Blind to step up to meet him, leaving the defence three-against-three at the back.
This approach never even did much to stop Matip either. Starting in a central position, Kudus was too far away to get across to him quickly, as was Bergwijn’s initial position close to Alexander-Arnold. If Bergwijn stepped up to Matip, then Alexander-Arnold was left free, but if he didn’t then Matip was left free to receive the ball and push forward with it. Even if he managed to get the balance right, Bergwijn simply isn’t a very good defender, unlikely to block off a passing angle or track a run off his back.
Whereas in attack Ajax used a more zonal approach, they had the midfielders pick up their opposite number. Berghuis would stick to Fabinho, Edson Alvarez would get pulled far forward following Thiago as he dropped back next to the Brazilian, and Kenneth Taylor would follow Harvey Elliott if he dropped back. If they were pulled forward though, there was suddenly a massive gap between the lines for a Liverpool player to pick up the ball, with Jota in particular taking advantage.
Liverpool found themselves easily able to work past Ajax’s press down the right and attack the space behind the midfield.
Liverpool took the lead just by going long over the Ajax press though. All of Ajax’s attackers and midfielders were drawn forward, as was left-back Blind to cover Alexander-Arnold, leaving them three-versus-three at the back. Alisson just lumped the ball long to Luis Diaz, who beat Jurriën Timber in the air to nod it into the path of Jota. Calvin Bassey came scrambling across to cover, enabling Jota to calmly square the ball to the now free Mohamed Salah to finish, with Blind unable to get back in time.
Ajax were also struggling going forward. They aimed to pass out from the back, but their midfielders were all pulled back deep towards the defence while they left their attackers high up the pitch, leaving no one to actually link play between them. What success they did have progressing the ball was by passing wide, taking advantage of Liverpool’s narrow midfield.
Despite their poor performance, it took Ajax just ten minutes to equalise. Ajax passed wide to Blind, who knocked the ball down the line to Berghuis making a run in behind Alexander-Arnold. Matip was forced across to cover, leaving Bergwijn free to receive a pass inside. As has become typical, neither Alexander-Arnold nor Fabinho bothered to muster more than a jog to get back – their jobs apparently finished as soon as the ball passed them – so despite Bergwijn being unable to shoot because Kudus got in his way, the striker still had the time to collect the ball and finish himself, untroubled by any Liverpool player.
Klopp made attacking changes mid-way through the second half, substituting Elliott and Jota as Liverpool switched to a 4-2-3-1.
It wasn’t from open play that Liverpool got their winner though. At a corner, with a crowd between them, Matip lost his marker Alvarez to head the ball over the line. Liverpool had looked threatening at set-pieces throughout the game, evading or simply bullying the markers of an aerially weak Ajax side.
The late goal was enough to seal the win for Liverpool in their last game in over a fortnight.
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