Jurgen Klopp suggested Oxlade-Chamberlain wasn’t involved in enough goalscoring situations at Arsenal, intimating that the opposite will be true at Liverpool. But is he right?

Arsenal face Liverpool at the Emirates on Friday, so of course, reporters asked Klopp about Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The 24-year-old moved between the two clubs over the summer, so journalists asked the Liverpool manager to give his thoughts on what had changed since the transfer.

“I think the biggest improvement and potential for him is being involved in goalscoring situations,” Klopp said. “It is unbelievable but he was not asked for this too much in the past.

“If you watch Arsenal in the past their two decisive players were Özil and Sánchez. They are involved in a lot of moments and decisive passes. Özil or Sánchez, then Giroud when he is coming on the pitch.

“Then you [the rest] are not much involved. Here we put it on more shoulders, much more shoulders. If he is on the pitch he needs to be involved in these situations. At the moment it’s all good but I also see there is space for improvement.”

So, according to Klopp, Oxlade-Chamberlain is perfect for an attacking role, getting involved in the goals, and Arsenal are at fault for refusing to give him the opportunity to do so. The statistics don’t back that up…

Well, firstly, in Europe it’s true that the Englishman takes more shots-per-game now than he used to. With Liverpool, he takes 1.5 per game, which is significantly higher than 0.7 per game with Arsenal last year.

But in the league, he’s now only taking 0.9 per game, compared to 1.0 last year. That’s actually the lowest his league shots-per-game have been since 2011/12. It’s also three times lower than the numbers Ox was hitting with the Gunners at the start of the season. So the results are inconclusive at best.

So far the former Gunner has two goals and two assists in 835 minutes for Liverpool. That’s one goal contribution every 209 minutes. With Arsenal last season, the England international scored six and assisted 11 in 2,568 minutes. That’s one every 151 minutes.

If Klopp is using Oxlade-Chamberlain’s offensive potential so much more effectively, why is the winger taking roughly the same number of shots and scoring and assisting less often?

We keep hearing about how much the player has improved, but for now, I’m still yet to see anyone provide evidence to back that claim up.