OX IN THE BOX SEAT
Oxlade-chamberlain is enjoying a record-breaking season but the Klopp philosophy means he wants more, and that means more goals, more game-time, more trophies
LIVERPOOL’S Alex Oxladechamberlain has the smile of someone happy in his surroundings.
He is in good form, his allconquering team are on course for a record-breaking season and the club’s Melwood training ground is a good place to be right now.
But the philosophy behind the Reds’ remarkable success is the reason why Oxlade-chamberlain is not satisfied. It is also why the 26-year-old midfielder loves being in this environment.
The best always want to get better and that is what is driving this squad towards greatness, a determination to improve and leave a lasting legacy of trophies.
Goals-wise, Oxlade-chamberlain is having the best season of his topflight career – eight in all competitions – and yet that statistic is still not good enough.
In fact, he thinks there is a lot more to come.
“I feel like I need to do a lot more if I’m being really honest. It’s my best goalscoring season,” he said.“But I haven’t scored enough, I need to get more numbers and I’ve got the perfect base and the perfect team to do more.
“There’s certain things that have definitely suggested I’ve improved. I could see it in my first season here just before I got injured that things were going in the right way and it felt like I was a big part of a team going in the right direction.
“That’s the environment we are in and I don’t know if that’s what we’ve built as a team or that’s the way I feel about myself, but I wouldn’t look at this season and clearly say I’ve taken a big step forward because in my eyes I need to do a lot more. I feel I need to keep pushing to keep up with the rest of this team.
“The only thing I can say is that I feel I have taken a step forward from two or three years ago because I’m now getting more minutes consistently.
“I’ve started six Premier League games in a row and it sounds funny but I can’t remember me doing that
before. I don’t think I ever did that at Arsenal.” That in itself tells its own story.
Whether it’s in his preferred role in central midfield or as part of the front three covering for Sadio Mane or Mo Salah, the Ox is a regular for the European champions and, just like his dad Mark before him, is an England international.
It would be so easy for Oxladechamberlain, after years of frustration with injuries and not fulfilling his huge potential, to think he has made it. But this is a player who left London and his comfort zone at Arsenal to move north to join Jurgen Klopp’s men because he was desperate to push himself.
“That’s the way I am,” added the Ox. “That’s how I have been brought up, striving to be the best you can be – whatever that may be – and never be satisfied. My dad would always say that you can look back and be happy with yourself when you can’t do it anymore. Until then, you always have to push, never be satisfied and that’s what this team is doing at the minute.
“I look at Jordan Henderson because he’s lifted the European Cup, how much that meant to him, but you wouldn’t have thought he’d lifted anything from the way he is.
“If anyone even utters the words, ‘Winning the league’ then he shuts them straight down. He won’t ever let himself get carried away. He’s just so driven, focused on the next game and the next thing.
“That’s how we are as a team and how I am as an individual.
“My dad instilled that into me, so that I am never too excited by anything that’s going on around me. You have got to go on to the next thing to achieve the next target.”