The Brazilian forward delivered nothing overtly spectacular against Ajax but, in his brief time on the Anfield pitch, made his presence felt
Jürgen Klopp is too busy, bothered and generally bad-tempered these days to play silly games with selection just to prove a point. So it cannot be the case that he left Roberto Firmino on the bench for more than an hour against Ajax in an attempt to demonstrate exactly what it is he brings to the team that so many others seem unable to see.
Nevertheless, for just about an hour at Anfield, that was what it looked like. Until a callow mistake by the visiting goalkeeper André Onana gifted Curtis Jones a neatly taken winner, Liverpool were, unusually, almost unrecognisably blunt. Even with free-scoring Diogo Jota on the pitch, the front three were not linking with their usual panache, or causing the Ajax defence many problems they could not handle.
Related: Jones sinks Ajax to send Liverpool through after Alisson adds to crisis
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