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da bwin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp took the blame for playing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the left wing against Chelsea in the Super Cup on Wednesday, but the 26-year-old should take a look in the mirror as well.
The German boss decided to give Roberto Firmino a rest and play Sadio Mane through the middle against the Blues in Istanbul, which left an opening on the left flank.
The 52-year-old decided to fill it by handing the former Southampton man is first competitive start in more than a year, even though he tended to play either in the centre or on the right of a three-man midfield during his last full season before he suffered a serious injury in 2017/18, according to Transfermarkt.
Having missed almost the entire 2018/19 campaign with a cruciate ligament issue, Oxlade-Chamberlain should be raring to go having made his return to the first team in May and having undergone a full pre-season.
Having briefly featured on the left as a substitute against Manchester City in the Community Shield, the England international was handed a start in the same position by Klopp in Turkey.
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The 26-year-old is certainly no stranger to playing out wide, even if he has looked more effective through the middle in more recent times – three goals and six assists in 17 appearances from there in 2017/18 is proof of that.
While he may not have been completely comfortable there as he looks to regain his match fitness, he simply didn’t take the opportunity he was given by his manager – whether the original decision was right or wrong.
He made next to no impact – aside from creating an early chance for Mo Salah – before being sacrificed at half-time for Firmino, and Klopp was completely honest about the call he made pre-match following the shoot-out victory.
He told liverpoolfc.com: “For Ox it was very important to have these minutes, it’s a position he can play. He can play much better than he did tonight but that’s how it is and after a long injury you have to find back the rhythm.
“It was not about that, I knew it was a very, very intense game so it was clear that we have to make that decision because we didn’t want to push him through, we want to give him the opportunity to perform, to shine if you want.
“In that position and the circumstances it was obviously not as possible as we would have wished, but that’s then my mistake and not his mistake because I made the decision.”
Chamberlain does have the pace, energy and dribbling ability – he averaged 5.7 dribbles per game in three Premier League appearances for Arsenal in 2017/18 prior to his move to Anfield, as per WhoScored – to cause opposition defenders problems, and if he wants to be a regular starter in this brilliant Liverpool side moving forward then he needs to prove it when he is afforded a chance.
All the Super Cup showed is that he isn’t ready to be in the XI yet either in attack or midfield, and as a result all he has done is harm his own selection chances – in the short term, at least.
For that the Englishman must shoulder a portion of the blame for Wednesday too, because he should have been far hungrier and more determined to make more of an impact on the pitch than he did.
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