Paul Merson heaped heavy praise on Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as he dubbed him a phenomenal player.
The pundit stated that the attacking midfielder would in no way weaken the Reds’ current starting line-up if given the opportunity to play.
“You could be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in that team and not weaken it, no way, he is a phenomenal player as well,” said Merson on Sky Sports’ The Debate (22:12, Monday, November 11th).
Merson then discussed Liverpool in general before Laura Woods turned the conversation back to Oxlade-Chamberlain which prompted the pundit to elaborate on his point.
“I think he plays a big part in this season because when they play against lesser teams, teams will just come and play with 10 behind the ball and make it hard,” added Merson.
“And if you look at the current midfield three, they don’t have much guile, they don’t have that eye of the needle, it’s okay when you play Man City who say you have a shot, we have a shot, but I think when facing the lesser teams, Oxlade-Chamberlain will become a big part of this football team.”
OPINION
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been on the fringes of Liverpool’s squad this season, he’s played just 262 minutes of Premier League action across eight outings (Source: Transfermarkt), and is no doubt eager to be reguarly featuring for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The 26-year-old has done his best to force his way into Klopp’s first-team plans as he has delivered the goods when given an opportunity to feature. Oxlade-Chamberlain has scored four goals this season across the 14 appearances he has made in all competitions and has averaged a ridiculously impressive goal every 78 minutes (Source: BBC Sport). To put that in perspective Sadio Mane has averaged a goal every 139 minutes while Mohamed Salah has averaged a goal every 145 minutes. While Oxlade-Chamberlain has arguably been playing weaker opponents, three of his goals came against Genk, he can only score against the opponent put in front of him. So with that in mind, it’s not hard to believe Merson has been blown away by him enough to be confident that his time will come this season.
