Intensity is the recently published book by Pepijn Lijnders, the assistant of trainer Jürgen Klopp. He describes last season per week, the year with two national cups for Liverpool, just short of a championship and the lost final of the Champions League. ‘It was a crazy adventure’, says Lijnders on the back cover. ‘And, as Jürgen says, the adventure continues.’
‘Intensity is our identity’, is the full motto of Lijnders, painted in red and white, in the corridors on the wall of the Anfield stadium. Intense was a hallmark of Liverpool’s game. Chasing the opponent, everywhere on the field, over the years with more and more peace and rhythm, with different nuances every time.
It is precisely that intensity that seems to have trickled away in the still young season. The lines don’t line up like that anymore. The top form is gone. It seems as if the team is taking a breather after all those tropical years and all injuries have to heal first. Nine points from six matches in the competition, lost 4-1 to Napoli on the opening day of the Champions League. Doubts about the omnipotence of Virgil van Dijk, the once unapproachable libero. A midfield without balance. The departure of Sadio Mané, the Haarlem oil of the vanguard.
Anfield will however be moaning with excitement on Tuesday. Liverpool – Ajax is the total contrast with two years ago, when the group matches took place in empty stadiums because of corona. Then Liverpool won twice. But what if Liverpool’s line continues to run downwards and Ajax’s line continues to creep up in top form? Then there must be a crossroads somewhere.
First really difficult match
Ajax has won everything, except for the Cruijff Scale against PSV. When is the first really difficult game since PSV? So Liverpool, normally. It was relatively easy to win against Fortuna, FC Groningen, Sparta, FC Utrecht, Cambuur, Rangers and Heerenveen. The transformation has taken place at breakneck speed, after the busy transfer summer. Only now does it get difficult. Liverpool first, AZ away on Sunday.
Trainer Alfred Schreuder recently did not address the question of whether the team is potentially better than the team of predecessor Erik ten Hag. It is certain that all those left and coming players, good for more than 210 million in income and 110 million in expenses, have significantly changed the selection. Schreuder has a choice. Mohammed Kudus was also a hanging striker in 2020, at home against Liverpool, but he was injured. He was the ‘discovery’ against Rangers last week as an attack leader. Ajax lost at home two years ago through an own goal by Nicolas Tagliafico. Goalkeeper André Onana blundered in the away game. 1-0 again.
Ajax can play football well against the English, although it often goes wrong. Pronouncing the name Tottenham is still almost banned in Amsterdam. At Chelsea it became 4-4 from 1-4, but Liverpool does not seem like Liverpool at the moment. Although Ajax has also changed, even compared to last season. Then the group stage was the brightly lit shop window of Sébastien Haller, with his ten goals in six matches. Yet there was sometimes criticism, because Ajax was dependent on Haller, the type of striker that they had almost forgotten at Ajax. Now there’s Kudus, with all his movement, or else Brian Brobbey. Lots of movement, while Liverpool without Sadio Mané (left for Bayern) moves less.
Wide, virtually fit selection
Moreover, Ajax has a broad, almost fit selection. Take the right back position. Ajax attracted a right back, the Mexican Jorge Sanchez, who left an excellent impression in relatively few minutes. But for now, Devyne Rensch is playing, the talent that had a relapse and seemed to be having trouble succeeding Noussair Mazraoui.
Rensch admits that the competition has stimulated him. He has started the season so well that he is in the pre-selection of Louis van Gaal for Orange. “It’s really nice to play as attacking football as we do. You know that wingers give the ball and have the quality to win one-on-one duels.’
A journalist asked him the inevitable question last week, after the 4-0 against Rangers. Whether Ajax was so good, or Rangers so bad. ‘We were good. We had a lot of the ball, with a lot of patience. Then the opportunities will come. Nobody likes how we play. We play really attacking, so defenders have to make a lot of choices. And we are well attuned to each other.’ Be that as it may, even a shattered Liverpool, in a bustling Anfield, is a different story from Rangers.