Ajax 0 Liverpool 1: Fabinho shows he can stand in for Van Dijk as calamitous Tagliafico own goal hands nervy Reds win
JURGEN KLOPP hailed stand-in centre-half Fabinho as Liverpool survived without their Virgil van Dijk to scrape their first win this month.
Much has been made about how the Premier League champions are likely to struggle after the Dutchman was ruled out for the season with a knee injury.
And while Nicolas Tagliafico’s calamitous first half own goal gifted gave Liverpool the win at a rain-soaked Amsterdam Arena, there was enough to suggest that the problems will continue for Klopp until his key men return.
But after a torrid month which saw Liverpool get knocked out of the Carabao Cup to Arsenal, thrashed 7-2 by Aston Villa and then draw 2-2 with Everton – plus the nightmare injury to his talisman – Klopp will have taken anything.
Here, midfielder Fabinho stepped into the huge hole left by Van Dijk made a heroic overhead kick goalline clearance to maintain Liverpool’s slender lead.
And Klopp was mightily impressed by what he saw from the Brazilian, but admitted his makeshift defensive partnership with Joe Gomez has to get better.
Klopp said: “Fabinho needed to make a proper stretch to get that ball from the line and then they hit the post so we could have done better
“Was there pressure on a situation? Yes it’s clear for the two at the back there in their first game together.
“But Fabinho can play the position he likes playing it actually, if I would have asked him to play right back I don’t think he would have been enjoyed as much as he is enjoying the centre-half position
“He can play better so that’s how it is. This combination with Joey and Fabinho, I don’t think they have played before together if I’m 100% right.
“So that they need to get used to each other they need to get used to the verbal demands on their position, what you have to say to help the midfielders and all these kind of things.
“So was a really good performance, but there’s a lot to improve. we are not dumb enough to think we didn’t need a little bit of luck.”
In fact, it was in attack where Liverpool looked most at sea – with Klopp hauling off Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in an incredible triple substitution on the hour mark.
The German gaffer may insist he hooked his vaunted front three to give them a rest ahead of their clash against Sheffield United at the weekend, the trio clearly did struggle to find their usual cutting edge in testing circumstances in Holland.
Fortunately for the toiling visitors, Tagliafico was on hand to somehow turn Mane’s scuffed effort into his own net in the 35th minute to ensure a winning start in Group D.
The Reds looked the stronger of the two teams despite Ajax creating several good chances in Amsterdam.
Davy Klaassen struck the post with a powerful shot and Quincy Promes had a point-blank effort stopped by the legs of Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian as the Dutch club created a handful of excellent opportunities.
Yet Liverpool, who won their sixth Champions League title in 2019, still just about proved value for their victory.
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They dominated possession and remained a threat on the break with a patched-up front line of Takumi Minamino, Diogo Jota and Xherdan Shaqiri in the last half an hour.
And Klopp was relieved to get the points after a nightmare week…. even if he admitted it was not “sunshine football”.
The German said: “It was good enough to win the game. That’s what you need.
“I think both teams could play better football. At moments it was wild. The pitch was deep and muddy.
“Three days ago it looked completely different and in training yesterday it looked different.
“But we did not take our chances which was a shame.
“Ajax had a big one which hit the post. When you’re 1-0 up, these things can happen.
“But overall I’m happy with the game. It was not sunshine football but we wanted three points and we got it.”
James Milner, who made just his second start of the season in midfield, was impressed with Fabinho’s influence.
Speaking after the game, he told BT Sport: “Fabinho is a top player and top players can adapt and he did that. He’s played there before and played very well.
“It’s always important to start well, it was a tough away game first up so that’s a bonus and they’re a good team.
“They were well organised, played good football and we’ve had an up and down week and so it was important to bounce back which we did and I expected nothing less from this group of players.
“I thought it was a good team performance because it was tough out there, it was a physical battle under tricky conditions.
“We’ll take anything in relation to a goal, we had enough chances, we were disappointed not to score more. We had a good number of counter attacks which we didn’t finish off.
“It’s a big clean sheet, with the changes we’ve made this week especially and they’re a good team, so it was important to get the clean sheet and take the points.”