Liverpool legend John Aldridge has heaped praise on Reds midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for how he’s returned to form recently.
The England international is still recovering from the horrific injury he suffered against Roma in 2018, but scored twice against Genk in the Champions League last week.
Aldridge was very impressed: “Last week’s Champions League win in Genk was a great example of what Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita can bring to this Liverpool team but they need more games so I’d hope to see another 90 minutes each from them [v Arsenal on Wednesday],” he told the Liverpool Echo.
“Oxlade-Chamberlain made a bit of a statement in Belgium and showed he is getting back to his best and now it’s up to some of the others to do the same against Arsenal.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that Oxlade-Chamberlain roared back to top form against Genk last week, and so he will likely have felt a bit unlucky not to have started Sunday’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur. However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp seems to have his preferred midfield three of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum who he always plays in the big games, and so the next challenge for ‘The Ox’ is to break up that partnership. However, he couldn’t have done much more to assert his claim during that Genk clash. Not only did the 26-year-old score twice but, as per WhoScored.com, he had three shots – two on target being the goals – produced a key pass, embarked on a successful dribble and posted a pass success rate of 88.9%. He’s a tremendous player and he’s done so well to come back from a horrific injury, but he won’t be satisfied with starting one game and then reverting back to the substitute’s bench for the next one. He needs to kick on now and see if he can secure a regular first team spot.
