Axel Witsel (2.5/10)
Starting Witsel as the lone defensive midfielder was a big mistake from Marco Rose. The Belgian international was too slow in nearly every department. And the Ajax midfielders were able to completely dominate the midfield battle as a result. His lack of pace also meant that he wasn’t able to plug the gaps left in midfield on turnovers.
Jude Bellingham (4/10)
No one can blame Bellingham for a lack of trying. He worked hard for the team but his inexperience showed on a few occasions against Ajax. His decision making wasn’t good enough for the majority of the game, even though he had a couple of encouraging moments going forward in the second half.
Julian Brandt (3/10)
Brandt was asked to do a lot of defending against Ajax. And after a while he simply gave up it seemed. Like Bellingham, he tried to make things happen for his team. But the end product just wasn’t there.