‘100 percent’: Klopp says £40m Liverpool player is not happy

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Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he ‘disappointed’ Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on Thursday night.

The 28-year-old has started only 12 outings across all competitions for Liverpool this season.

Three of these came in the Carabao Cup.

And when Klopp’s outfit were paired with Arsenal in the semi-final, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s former club, the England international could’ve been forgiven for relishing the prospect of facing the Gunners.

However, the German manager named Oxlade-Chamberlain – a £40 million signing in 2017 – on the bench, giving him only 15 minutes.

And the Liverpool boss has conceded via a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s clash with Brentford that his player was very frustrated by the decision.

He said: “I’m very happy with Ox but I know he was disappointed [at not starting vs. Arsenal]. I get it, I 100 percent would’ve been. The thing is that in the situation we are in we had to think how we start and how can we change.”

Annoyed

Klopp is justified in how sparingly he’s been using the former Southampton starlet this season.

Because honestly, Oxlade-Chamberlain hasn’t been pulling up any trees and he’s nowhere near to being a first-team regular at Liverpool.

But remember, the Reds were up against 10 men for 65 minutes on Thursday and really, the Merseysiders needed Oxalde-Chamberlain’s urgency and incisiveness a lot sooner.

Leaving him out of the starting lineup was the first insult, but only giving him 15 minutes in which to hurt this old side was another one and really, he had every right to be annoyed.