Liverpool beating Ajax 1-0 at Anfield on Tuesday was a far bigger result than it first seems. The Reds are officially through in the Champions League.
Curtis Jones sealed a 1-0 win over Ajax for Liverpool on Tuesday. With it, the Reds win Group D and qualify for the first knockout-round of the Champions League this season.
So clearly, that’s a good result. Although, they could have wrapped up qualification against FC Midtjylland next week – and everyone would have backed them to do so.
But in reality, there is a huge difference between doing it now and doing it next week. Liverpool have just made their season an awful lot easier.
Fresh legs
Liverpool face a tough December. There are fixtures roughly every three days and the Reds must deal with them despite a depleted squad.
Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Thiago, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita, James Milner and Xherdan Shaqiri are all currently out injured.
That brings two problems. Firstly, they’re not available and the team is much weaker. But it also means the players who are available need to play every game without much rest.
That makes a tough month even tougher and it could potentially lead to some very poor results as Liverpool can’t possibly be at their best.
But the win over Ajax means next week’s game with Midtjylland is meaningless for Liverpool. They’re already through and they’ve topped the group.
Jurgen Klopp can afford to rest his stars, then – he could even just play the youngest team available and not care about the result.
Thus everyone gets a week off between the Wolves and Fulham fixtures. It also shortens the intense period from four weeks to three.
That’s huge for Liverpool. It lightens the load and could, hopefully, save their December. We can’t seem them falling out of the title-race any longer.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
