English midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has found himself a fringe player for Arsenal at best this season and pundit Graeme Souness recently called him out on his bad attitude and approach to his professional career.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may have scored the second goal in the Gunners’ 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth, but that didn’t spare him from being criticized by Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness.
“Does he take it seriously enough? He always seems to be the joker,” Souness said, according to Sky Sports. “There is a player in there but it is time to stand up and be counted.
“With the quality he has, he should not be happy to sit on the bench and be a bit-part player. He should be banging down the manager’s door and asking why he isn’t in the side. Is he prepared to do that?”
He added that Ox needed to stop laughing and joking around and start becoming more serious, even angry, at not being in the starting XI more regularly.
Ox needs to charge
At 22 years of age, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain needs regular game time to grow and develop as a player and make enough of an impression to break into the national side. He has started just 8 games for Arsenal this season, with just the one goal. Among attacking players, 6 of his teammates have scored more goals than him and he is yet to make an assist this season.
Ox is also competing for a position in midfield, an area where Arsene Wenger has a number of options including the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Joel Campbell, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere. If Oxlade-Chamberlain wasn’t to get a piece of the action at Arsenal, he will have to put up performances that are good enough to oust one of those players from the top of the pecking order.
