Klopp must now brutally axe Liverpool's "next James Milner", he's burnt FSG of £60m - opinion

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp must ruthlessly axe £16m-rated Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from his squad and look for a replacement in the summer.

Whilst the 28-year-old midfielder has been a sound squad player during his time at the Reds, the club should try to get rid of him and save on his £125k-per-week wages.

Recent reports have suggested that Klopp is looking to bring in a ‘top-class’ midfielder in the summer and this may remove the need for Oxlade-Chamberlain altogether.

He has appeared 17 times this season for Liverpool but that’s likely due to injuries to players who would usually start ahead of him such as Thiago who has missed 23 games this campaign due to various problems.

The English midfielder averages 1.95 passes that lead to a shot attempt per 90 minutes which isn’t awful, but when you’re playing for a team who’s fighting for the title you need to produce higher numbers.

When you compare his performances to the midfielders he is competing for a spot with, he comes out worst.

His pass completion percentage for this season is 78.9% which falls behind Henderson, Fabinho, Keita and Jones. As do his numbers for progressive carries which stands at 65, joint worst with Jones.

Earlier in his career he didn’t play as a midfielder, so he can be versatile. Indeed he was dubbed the “next James Milner” by reporter Raj Chohan and recently Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher suggested that the club should move him into the right-back position to cover for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold.

If he’s to reignite his career on Merseyside he may just have to settle for that, or he could find more game time elsewhere.

Although he doesn’t look like someone who’s going to give up soon as recent reports said that he was offered the