He put in an eye-catching display as the Reds defeated Diego Simeone’s side 2-0 to book their place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
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Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was pleased with his showing against Atletico Madrid but went on to insist that there is more to come from him. He put in an eye-catching display as the Reds defeated Diego Simeone’s side 2-0 to book their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with still two Group B fixtures left to play. Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has started two of the past three matches, while featuring in each of the last six, believes that he is benefiting from the increased game time. “Yeah, of course. Look, a player like me who sometimes tries to do risky things – run with the ball, drive with the ball – obviously rhythm helps that,” the midfielder told Liverpoolfc.com when asked if he feels he is regaining rhythm.
“Rhythm helps all players, of course, but I think especially me with the way I play, with more game time and games it becomes a bit more natural and I don’t have to think about these things as much. So no, I think it’s getting better but obviously at the minute we’ve got a few injuries in midfield. Hopefully soon we’ll have everyone back and then the competition starts, but as long as I can be absolutely ready and be able to perform well if needed, I need to make sure I’m doing that. Games help and I felt better tonight [against Atletico] – but I think I definitely can improve even more for sure.”
Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over the Spanish champions made it four wins from four Group B outings for the Reds. Oxlade-Chamberlain was happy with the way his team played to advance from a group that also includes Atletico, FC Porto and AC Milan. “Obviously on paper it’s a really hard group with a lot of quality in there but I think we approached all the games exactly how we needed to,” he continued.
“We always say that on our best days we can beat anyone, and especially in a competition like this you have to beat the best. So it’s obviously not sometimes ideal to have so many good teams in your group, it can make it harder, but if you want to do well in this competition you’ve got to beat these kind of teams. We’ve started the campaign off really well, we’ve got ourselves through, and I think we performed really well throughout.”
In their latest Champions League clash, goals by Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane had Liverpool race to a 2-0 lead inside the opening 21 minutes against Atletico. Asked whether the Reds’ opposition analysis discover a trait in Simeone’s team that made such proactivity the right approach, Oxlade-Chamberlain explained, “No, but I think with a team like Atletico, they’re so good at defending and they can really frustrate you.”
“I think we’ve had experience of that playing against them. When you don’t get the goal it becomes really difficult and they’re always a threat on the counter as well, with the quality players they have. So I think it’s always key to try to get yourselves in front early against them and then that obviously changes the dynamic of the game and maybe changes the way they approach the game; they have to come out a bit more to us, which sometimes suits us.
“But being clinical was crucial. I remember a game away at their place where we weren’t able to do that and they really frustrated us even though we had quite a lot of the ball on the night. The last two games against them we’ve managed to make the breakthroughs and scored some really good goals and yeah, that changes the dynamic of the game completely.”
