What a great opening post mate. Nice critique analysis.
I'd say that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain still has "great potential". I've been watching him a bit closely since he was linked to us. He does a number of jobs very well, but not one thing at elite level, yet. I'm being cautious because he's been playing for a lacklustre Arsenal side, and a odd england side too.
I cant see him being a 6 anytime soon, with Hendo always improving there, and Emre Can also excels at that position. I see him playing 8 (Central-midfield Attack) or 11 (Right winger/forward). You could play him in 6 though, cos he doesnt shy away and always wants the ball.
He'll need time to adjust to the team, he seems to have vision, but he's also very greedy for the shot (as he was against Slovakia for England). If klopp can get him making better decisions in the final third, he'll be a great asset to us. Seems a lovely lad too.
Good luck to him.
Good point about the shooting. The interesting thing is his shot count has gone way down at Arsenal in recent years based on the data. But it's still high at England. That leads me to suspect that is tactical instruction. SHite instruction, but instruction none the less. This is where my criticism of Southgate lies. I think he's a shite coach. I also doubt he uses analytics. If he did he would know AoC is shite at shooting and should be discouraged from shooting where possible. Seeing him score a piledriver occasionally is like walking into a casino as someone wins a jackpot. You didn't see the 4 hours he was there ploughing money into the casino before that jackpot came along. Or the other 4 days this week he's been in ploughing money in for nothing back at all. Even a basic look at his shot maps is a warning sign for a coach on his shooting.
Coutinho's shots under Klopp are the second thing to look at here. First of all, Coutinho's shooting used to be highly erratic. First of all, his shots were mostly daisy cutters. The technique on hitting them has clearly improved. Secondly his shot locations has changed from being all over the shop to being more central. He has also removed entirely those insanely speculative shots from way outside the danger zone. He also has so few blocked shots compared to the past - which if you watch him is because he now unbalances a defender, then shoots so he cannot block. So you can see a huge amount of work has gone into Coutinho's shooting in many different ways.
The other interesting thing here is Ramsey. Ramsey's shot maps look like a very clever player getting into great locations (e.g. Lampard) and then being a shit finisher in those locations. His goalscoring reads as variance, one season of his erratic shooting resulting in goals. Four seasons of being average or below average. He fluffs so many big chances though. It's never been corrected either. His finishing isn't improving at all. Is he just incapable of learning and improving or is this not coached at Arsenal? I've no idea. There is a clear improvement in the finishing skill of several players at Liverpool both in terms of where they are shooting from and their success rates in doing so. The few times I am doing a hard look at an Arsenal player I don't see the same improvements. All their erratic finishers like Coutinho are still erratic finishers a few years later. Players like Ozil, Welbeck, AoC, Ramsey - no real improvement.
So I think worst case scenario, we will see very little of that wasteful shooting here as he has shown at Arsenal when encouraged to shoot less, he has been doing so for them. But shoots far more for England. Best case scenario, maybe he can be coached to improve his technique and shot choice up to being an average finisher. Maybe even better. Even if he doesn't though, if he is just offering high penetration and creativity and stops wasting possession with shots, that's a winning combination right there.