KLOPP LOVES HIS OX FACTOR
Boss says of fit- again midfielder: As soon as he’s back everyone says it’s much better now
JURGEN KLOPP has backed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to bounce back to his best after yet another long- term injury.
Rumours suggest the former Arsenal star will struggle to recapture the form that made him a Liverpool and England regular following the knee injury he suffered at a summer training camp in Austria.
But Kop boss Klopp has no doubts that the best of the Ox is yet to come.
“I don’ t understand these kind of discussions to be honest,” the Liverpool chief rapped.
“Being compared to the best moment of your career when you are coming back from an injury is really dumb. ‘ Oh, he’s not that good any more’ – I have no time for that.
“You have to be injured once in your life to understand how difficult it is to find everything completely natural and normal again after that.
“Ox i s an outstanding pl ayer, an outstanding player, always was and always will be. In training you can see his quality immediately. The longer he can stay without injury the better he will be. This time we are really confident we can do that until the end of his career.”
The 27- year- old is back in full training and could even be given a place on the bench for tomorrow’s visit to Fulham.
Klopp (right) clearly trusts the former Arsenal star, despite his two lengthy absences with injury. Ox made 44 appearances for the Reds s in their title win-inn in g-season, and 46 in 2017-18, when they reached the Champions League final.
“He is a differencemaker, you can see that,” added Klopp.
“When he joins training again, everybody gets the bene benefit of that. That’s th the way he is.
“You don’ t know that you are missing him b because he is not th there for along tim time, and then, the moment he comes in and is in the gym with the players, they say : ‘ Ok, right, it’s much better when he is here.’ That’s Ox. In the first
few weeks the boys get all the help they need, but then, especially with Ox, he is the energy- giver, he doesn’ t need too much energy from other people.”
The midfielder ( above) suffered a devastating knee injury in the Champions
League semi-final against Roma back in 2018 that sidelined him for a year.
Since then, even some die- hard Liverpool supporters have questioned whether he can return to the same level.
But an angry Klopp argued that those f ans should take a long, hard look at themselves.
“If an LFC supporter has forgotten how good Ox is then my English is not good enough to tell them that,” he added.