Jurgen Klopp has hit out at Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s critics and believes it is unfair to compare the former Arsenal star with fellow summer recruit Mohamed Salah.
While the Egypt international has hit the ground running and quickly established himself as an integral part of Klopp’s new-look forward line, Oxlade-Chamberlain has spent the majority of his Liverpool career on the substitutes’ bench thus far.
The England international, who is yet to win a game for his new club since his deadline day move, turned in a woeful performance against Leicester on his first Liverpool start during Tuesday’s Carabao Cup defeat against Leicester.
Salah was rested in midweek and is likely to return at the expense of Oxlade-Chamberlain who Klopp believes has been saddled with unrealistic expectations.
‘You should never take things like this for granted but I’m not surprised by how quickly he [Salah] has adapted,’ he said.
‘He had a whole pre-season, so it is not as if he has had to settle in in a minute, which is what people are now expecting of Ox [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain].
‘He has been working with us for many weeks, so it’s no problem for him.”
‘What was it, £38m? I can never say a fee like this was cheap. But he’s a very good player, one we were convinced about. That’s why we did it.
‘You could see in the first game at Watford, it was quite difficult. It was really physical and maybe a few people had doubts and thought it would be difficult for him.
‘But he played better than anyone could have imagined. He was at Chelsea, but he was a kid there. Now he’s much more mature and everything is better.’
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