Chamberlain’s transfer to Liverpool was met with a diverse response with many fans hoping for another ‘attacker’ to support our stellar exciting forwards but instead Klopp decided to pursue a bit-part Arsenal player and spend a significant amount on securing his signature. The German described the English international as a “positive player who is willing to take risks” and “has the mentality and desire to get even better”. Liverpool fans were made to wait a little while to get to see their new man get a run in the team with Chamberlain taking some time to settle and adjust to the tactical side of our game, according to the boss. As we known now, Klopp likes to keep his new signings away from the spotlight for as long as possible until he feels they are sufficiently up to speed and ready to make a real impact on the pitch – just look at Fabinho and the impact he’s made since properly coming into the team. Once he was up to speed with the ‘Liverpool way’ of playing last season, Chamberlain looked unstoppable and was arguably one of the first players on the team sheet. Despite being played in a somewhat more ‘restricted’ role at Liverpool, playing as a centre-midfielder, Chamberlain looked so dangerous on the counter and his 3 goals and 7 assists in the league proved that. His playing style at Liverpool was perfectly epitomised by his Champions League goal against rivals Manchester City when he perfectly controlled a slightly wild pass and unleashed a thunderbolt right into the top corner. 
His impact on the pitch, aside from his goals and assists, is far underrated with the former Arsenal man completing 1.6 dribbles per league game whilst also winning 3.4 duels – miles ahead of new arrival Naby Keita’s 0.8 and 2.8 in the league respectively. Whilst Keita’s role in this Liverpool side is slightly different from Chamberlain’s last season, their playing style is similar, and this further shows how impactful Chamberlain was during his maiden campaign in Merseyside. Despite not being used in his preferred central role at Arsenal, his use in a plethora of different positions clearly allowed Chamberlain to perfect his all-round game and his 0.7 interceptions per league game shows that – Keita has only manged 0.3 per game so far in the league this season despite previously being known for his impressive ball recovery. Chamberlain was unlucky not to have more than just his 7 league assists with the Englishman creating a further 8 ‘big chances’ and I have no doubt that his tally could have easily reached double figures. It came as quite a shock when he saw Chamberlain collapse less than 20 minutes into our Champions League semi-final first leg game against Roma, with it being clear to see that something was very wrong with the Englishman. Chamberlain collapsed onto the pitch holding his right knee and his fellow Liverpool players could immediately tell his game was over. Despite obviously being in a bad way, Chamberlain struggled over to the touchline before collapsing again before the medical team could help him further. Chamberlain’s season ended with him being carried on a stretcher down the tunnel and we later learned that he had badly injured his knee ligaments and it was expected that he would miss the entirety of this season. It was believed by many around the club that Chamberlain would struggle to come back from such a catastrophic injury with some stating that he is lucky that he is in a position where he can play professional football again. 
It’s for this reason that we were all absolutely delighted with the news that Chamberlain was back in training after Christmas and he is expected to be available for selection from around the start of March – just in time for the second leg of our Champions League knockout round versus Bayern Munich. If all goes to plan and Chamberlain is back amongst the squad from the start of March, it is entirely possible that he will play at home against both Tottenham and Chelsea and our chances of winning are much better with him in the team. Even if Chamberlain isn’t able to have the same impact as he did last season, being applauded by the supporters upon entering the pitch and then being able to link up with his teammates, some of them he will never have played with before, will do him a world of good and his confidence will be sky high ready for next season. Article by James McHale @jamesmchale2607 16+ PODCASTS P/MONTH
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