The Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, like a lot of our English contingent, has been an up-and-coming talent for for the last four years, but injuries have always seemed to hamper his progress, and when he has played he has flattered to deceive..
He has recently been used more as an attempted impact sub, but now that the Gunners have reached a point of the season that they are playing two games a week he now has to prove to himself that he has gone past the point of being “potential” and is ready to be a fully fledged first team member.
His in-and-out performances looked a thing of the past as he scored a brilliant goal against Chelsea to win us the Community Shield, but he still seems to missing out on the end product. His first season tally of four goals is still his best record and he needs to start converting his chances on a much more regular basis. Since the Chelsea game, he has started another four times and come on as sub another five times without any further success.
Arsene Wenger has told the 22 year-old that now is the time for him to believe more in his abilities and play with more freedom, and Alex himself agrees. “It is what my dad says as well so there might be a little bit of a trend here.
“I am quite critical of myself and I try to demand quite high standards of myself, so sometimes maybe that can work in a negative fashion and is something that I need to work on.”
It is time for him to stop working on it and go out and perform, starting tonight in what should be an easyish game against Olympiakos. It’s times for goals, Alex or Wenger will start to lose patience with the England international….
Its time for Oxlade-Chamberlain to add more discipline to his game…Would be an amazing player if he just cut out the stray passes and worked on getting abit more responsibility into the defensive side of the game..
My suggested team:
Cech
Bellerin – Mertesaker – Koscielny – Monreal
Ramsey – Cazorla
Ox – Ozil – Sanchez
Walcott
Subs: Ospina, Debuchy, Chambers, Gabriel, Gibbs, Campbell, Giroud
Unleash the OX. I got a feeling, that tonight’s gonna be a good night.
time is running out for Oxie….
if he doesnt perform well regularly…he could be replaced by Reus or Isco in the summer
He shows flashes of Sanchez sometimes, working hard to return the ball, keeping the ball well and forcing opponents defenses into making mistakes, major difference is the goal scoring part and never die attitude Sanchez has.
Too many goals have come down the flanks where Ox operates, unfortunate coincidence for him or not, he needs to improve on his defensive duties (he can learn from either Sanchez or Welbz on this). I would rather he gives away an OG putting his body on the line for the team than him backing out of a challenge.
Time for Ox to step up his game, his got bags of potential that he has to deliver on.
The only player showing flashes of Sanchez in the whole EPL is Jamie Vardy. This guy is Sanchez on a smaller scale: fighting for every ball, coming back for the ball, shooting and going forward at pace. I don’t believe he will stick too long with Leicester. And this is exactly what Ox is not doing at the moment except for the going forward where he is exceptional. Maybe we expect too much from him, who knows.
BTW, I am not saying we need to buy Vardy. Was just an observation I had watching three Leicester games this season.