OPINION
Last season was one of fine margins for Liverpool.
Whether it was scraping through that jaw-dropping Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, or having Mo Salah’s shot cleared off the line at the Etihad by John Stones, things could have been very, very different for the Reds.
The nature of football as a game means that it is easy to be quite counter-factual about things, and to hypothesise on what might have been if various factors had or had not come into play.
One fine example for the Reds is the prolonged absence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The midfielder was just beginning to find his form in a Red shirt when he suffered a horrendous ligament injury in the Champions League semi-final against Roma in 2018.
A year on the sidelines followed, and while he was able to feature twice towards the end of last season, he was a long way off being anything close to a serious contributor.
Who knows how the Reds might have performed with him available every week.
Now, however, he is fully fit, and after it was confirmed by the club via Twitter that he would one of 16 players returning to Melwood to prepare for preseason training, he can look forward to going into the new season in peak physical condition.
And it is no exaggeration to say that he would be like a new signing for the Reds.
Prior to his injury he was notching up 1.1 per passes per match, and only getting dispossessed 0.8 times per game in the Premier League for the Reds [Whoscored].
If he can come into the midfield and replicate that kind of high intensity, efficient creativity, then the £120,000-a-week ace [Spotrac] can be a real game changer for the Reds.
