Oxlade-Chamberlain Credits Klopp with His Recent Success

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Anfield’s Current Boyfriend (don’t fight me on this), has had a pretty decent few months all things considered. He’s turned out quite a few good performances, netted some beautiful goals, and made a solid case for continuing to make appearances in Klopp’s starting XI. It wasn’t the easiest path to that starting spot, but it was the encouragement from Klopp that got him there.

“From day one, I wanted to play as much as possible, so I was always trying to do my best to put pressure on the manager to play me,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told the ECHO about his first days at the club. “I am not the type of character to go bursting walls down. I knew the manager would want me to learn the way he wants me to play and how to play best with the team. I knew there would be that process.”

The chance to play with Klopp, even if it meant more time on the training field than the player would have liked, was one of the main things that drew Oxlade-Chamberlain to the club, and he’s glad that it paid off.

“The manager has been brilliant ever since I’ve come here. He’s very positive and he’s someone who gives all the players a lot of belief,” Ox added. “He’s shown he believes in me massively, even after performances I’ve not been happy with. He picks out the good things and encourages as well as saying where you have room for improvement. He’s got great people skills. He talks about your family, how you’re getting on, your living environment, little things like that.

“When you get that relationship with anyone, especially at a professional level, it makes work easy. You can learn better. He will continue to help me develop from this point.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain (and the rest of the team) will be looking forward to receiving Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday, and Ox believes this game will go better than the one last September.

“We know we can beat City. We have to be good on the day. We need to defend well and attack like we know we can. We have everything we need to go and get the right result.”