Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain admits he is still ‘not near’ his best form for Liverpool.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has continued to step up his return from a lengthy injury lay-off by recording goals against Genk and Arsenal during the past seven days.
The England international’s strike against his former club was a highlight of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie as he rifled a 30-yard strike into The Kop goal.
But Oxlade-Chamberlain concedes he remains some way off a regular claim in Jurgen Klopp’s line-up and named teammate Fabinho as proof of the benchmark.
He said: “Quality-wise, I am not too happy with my performance to be honest.
“I wasn’t great on the ball and not near my own personal level of where I want to be. I put in a good shift and run a lot.
“I watched the boys of a weekend and I know what it is about here.
“You have got to be at a really high physical level to go and put in a performance like that.
“Fab(inho) did really well at the weekend so I need to keep pushing myself and maybe I will get a chance.”
The midfielder’s impressive marksmanship has ensured he is never far away from Klopp’s first-team thought despite the Liverpool manager urging patience.
“At the minute, they are not tap-ins, let’s put it that way,” said Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“It was really nice to score but obviously it is against your former side, obviously, it was a pretty good goal, so it was really hard to keep the celebrations in.
“But that is always something that I knew I would do against my former club. I always want to show a lot of respect for Arsenal and what they did for me and the times I had there.
“I didn’t want to celebrate but it was a tough one to hold in. I wanted to take my shirt off and go mad!
“It was nice to get one, I have been given a license to shoot from outside the box and the last few games I’ve managed to do that. Hopefully it continues.”