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The Dutch coach believes that his team performed well in defeat, but did not take full advantage of his opponent’s weaknesses
Erik ten Hag felt Liverpool were “vulnerable” to Ajax and regretted bad luck in a 1-0 Champions League loss on Wednesday.
Ajax had their chances, but Nicolas Tagliafico’s first-half own goal was enough for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the Group D clash in Amsterdam.
Liverpool were winless in three games before the game, and in action for the first time since Virgil van Dijk suffered a serious knee injury on Saturday.
Ten Hag said he felt the Eredivisie giants could have taken advantage of the Premier League champions.
“It would have been a huge advantage if we had gotten one or more points,” said the Ajax head coach. “I think Liverpool were vulnerable. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the most of it.”
Ten Hag added: “We were unlucky. We did well collectively. We were convincing, but that last one percent was missing, we didn’t score even though we created a lot of chances. That’s the story of this game, I think.”
Tagliafico converted a failed effort by Sadio Mane 10 minutes before the break for the only goal of the match.
Ten Hag said there were elements of Ajax’s performance that he was satisfied with.
“We knew the strength of Liverpool, we wanted to prevent their full-backs, who are their playmakers, from advancing. That was one,” he said.
“The second thing is that we wanted to control the midfield. Daley [Blind] he’s very good at it, he’s very calm with the ball. And in that way, we wanted to attack his defense with deep runs. I think we did pretty well a couple of times. “
While Trent Alexander-Arnold had a calmer performance for Liverpool, left-back Andy Robertson impressed. Robertson had the most key passes (five), passes (78), half-opposition passes (56) and touches (104) of any player on the ground.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp admitted his team was far from their best on Wednesday and revealed that Mane started the game despite a persistent injury.
Liverpool will face Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday and are currently third in the league. Meanwhile, Ajax travels to VVV-Venlo for the weekend and is only one point behind Eredivisie leaders PSV.
