Jurgen Klopp made sure to praise Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in his post-match press-conference last night.
The Englishman played the full 90 minutes in the 3-0 victory over Maribor, and like his team-mates, very much improved as the game went on.
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Klopp was asked if would now consider starting Ox in the Premier League, which he took slight issue with – before praising the 24-year-old’s counter-press!
“If he starts a Champions League game, he is not far from starting a Premier League game, no?” Klopp told Sky Sports.
“He was good, he offered a lot, I loved his counter-pressing situations. I’m not sure he did this a lot of times in his life already so it was really nice to see.”
We were quietly impressed with Oxlade-Chamberlain at Anfield. In the miserable opening 45 minutes, he was perhaps the only player willing to turn and run forward – although it’s fair to say not many of his attempts came off.
In the second though, he won balls back and curled some nice balls into Daniel Sturridge as well.
We don’t see much opportunity for him when Sadio Mane, Coutinho and Adam Lallana all return, so Ox needs to take his opportunities when presented.
Versus West Ham though, we can see him vacating the frontline for Daniel Sturridge – although he’ll surely be used off the bench.