Liverpool should be wary of Ajax threat in Champions League clash

The more things change, the more they stay the same at Ajax.

Despite a summer of extreme upheaval, the champions of the last three completed Eredivisie seasons are once again sitting pretty on their perch at the top of the table.

The reign of Alfred Schreuder, the successor to Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, has begun with a flurry of goals and an unblemished league record of six wins from six.

Early season Eredivisie results have included a 6-1 rout of Groningen, a 4-0 win over Cambuur and last weekend’s 5-0 hammering of Heerenveen.

Ajax also opened their Champions League campaign with a 4-0 drubbing of Rangers last week, where the difference in class was painfully apparent for the Scottish club.

So despite the summer departures of Antony and Sebastien Haller, responsible for 46 of their goals last season, they don’t appear to be any worse off when it comes to finding the net.

If you include the curtain-raising Johan Cruyff Shield, which they lost 5-3 to PSV Eindhoven, Ajax have averaged 3.5 goals per game so far this season.

All of which doesn’t bode particularly well for an out-of-sorts Liverpool, who welcome Ajax to Anfield on matchday two of the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Ordinarily, Jurgen Klopp’s side would be the favourites – they did the double over the Dutch champions in the group two seasons ago, albeit by a slender 1-0 margin both home and away.

But worrying defensive weaknesses have been exposed on more than one occasion in the early weeks of the season, not least in the shock 4-1 loss to Napoli last midweek.

All four of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson – essentially Liverpool’s first-choice back four – endured a nightmare evening in the white heat of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Jamie Carragher described the performance as ‘suicide football’, Klopp effectively conceded the season was a write-off as the team ‘reinvents itself’ and bookmakers made them fourth favourites…to win the Europa League.

In truth, such a shocker had been coming. Liverpool’s opening to the season has been shaky and most unlike them.

They were fortunate to come away from newly-promoted Fulham on the opening day with a point having been bullied by Aleksandar Mitrovic and they were out-fought by Man United at Old Trafford.

Further dropped points against Crystal Palace and Everton have allowed Manchester City and others to gain the early advantage in the title race.

All of a sudden, the defensive resilience that sustained a historic Quadruple bid right until the final days of last season has crumbled into dust.

Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold look a shadow of their usual selves, while Gomez has become a liability. Nothing seems to be going right.

Ajax definitely have the firepower to inflict further misery and seriously jeopardise the qualification chances of a team that were in the final less than four months ago.

To say the summer didn’t go according to plan for the Amsterdam club would be a colossal understatement.

They’d known for some time that Ten Hag was leaving for a new challenge in Manchester but what couldn’t be predicted was the scale of upheaval that followed his exit.

Ajax managed to fend off a Ten Hag raid for star defender Jurrien Timber but they couldn’t turn down a £55million offer for Lisandro Martinez.

But it was United’s persistent pursuit of forward Antony, who finally got his wish on deadline day in a deal worth £85m, that really stuck in the craw.

Sporting director Gerry Hamstra made no secret of his frustration that such an integral player was snatched from them with no time to sign a replacement before the deadline.

But given the Brazilian had effectively gone on strike to force through his move to United, it would have been potentially more damaging to keep him.

Haller scored 34 times last season and was always going to attract interest, with Borussia Dortmund winning the race to sign him for around £28m.

But unfortunately the striker was diagnosed with a malignant testicular tumour over the summer and is undergoing chemotherapy that will keep him sidelined for several months.

The attacking midfielder Mohammed Kudus – seemingly following the example of Martinez and Antony – went on strike on deadline day to unsuccessfully try to push through a transfer to Everton.

But despite these less-than-ideal circumstances, Schreuder has made the best of it and Ajax have come flying out of the blocks.

The 20-year-old forward Brian Brobbey has replaced Haller at the point of the attack, scoring three goals already.

Brobbey didn’t have the best of times at RB Leipzig, who bought him from Ajax in March last year, as he failed to score a single goal. But his second spell with Ajax looks set to be a lot more productive.

Schreuder has also pushed Kudus into the centre forward position to good effect – he scored once and created another in the win over Rangers and netted twice against Heerenveen.

Given the Ghanaian’s form, he will likely get the nod on Tuesday night. He could have been playing on Merseyside had he got his wish, but scoring there wouldn’t be a bad alternative.

But the real early season revelation has been Steven Bergwijn, who joined from Tottenham for £28m and has scored eight times in his first eight Ajax outings.

The prospect of the left-sided forward going up against Alexander-Arnold on Tuesday is an ominous one for Liverpool, even if the English view of Bergwijn is clouded by his underwhelming time in north London.

Antony’s exit did leave Ajax short on the right side. Schreuder’s solution has been to move Dusan Tadic across, with mixed results so far.

In time, he might be able to convert Lucas Ocampos, who joined on loan from Sevilla after failed attempts to get Hakim Ziyech back from Chelsea, from a left to a right-sided attacker.

The front three at Anfield is likely to be Bergwijn and Tadic either side of Kudus. There’s a sense of square pegs and round holes about it but it’s worked to blistering effect so far this season.

And that’s why Ajax have more than enough to trouble Liverpool on Tuesday night. You really can’t rule out a repeat of that classic 4-4 draw between Chelsea and the Dutch club in November 2019.

It may still feel early in the group but you also can’t escape the feeling Liverpool simply cannot afford to lose this one.