Divock Origi's patience at Liverpool could pay off under Jurgen Klopp
Wednesday 2 November 2016 06:55, UK
Divock Origi is having to be patient as he waits for opportunities at Liverpool but there are signs that he's already Jurgen Klopp's go-to man from the bench. There could be better times ahead for the youngster, writes Adam Bate.
Divock Origi is only 21, but there have already been plenty of ups and downs for the Belgian striker. He was a teenage goalscorer at the 2014 World Cup, and former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insisted Origi could "light up world football" soon after.
But he was also named in French newspaper L'Equipe's worst team of the season with an average rating of 4.46 during a subsequent loan spell at Lille - one in which he went five months without finding the net.
On his return to Liverpool, the £10m signing wasted two glorious chances against FC Sion last October that Rodgers claimed he has "got to take". It proved significant. The manager was gone a game later and Origi had a new boss to impress.
Fortunately, he's been able to do just that. There have been some huge highs for Origi under Jurgen Klopp already - a hat-trick against Southampton, scoring home and away against Borussia Dortmund and getting among the goals in a derby win over Everton.
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But there's a feeling that the forward now finds himself in an interesting phase. Klopp is pleading for patience from a player desperate to get on the pitch but unable to do so because of the fluency provided by Roberto Firmino's switch to a central striking role.
If Origi keeps working hard and plays the waiting game, the opportunity could yet arrive. After all, while much of the focus has been on Daniel Sturridge's first-team prospects, in some respects it's his junior partner who is uppermost in Klopp's thoughts.
Despite Sturridge scoring twice in the EFL Cup win over Tottenham last week, Klopp brought Origi on from the bench in the Premier League wins over West Brom and Crystal Palace. Sturridge remained an unused substitute.
In the draw against Spurs at White Hart Lane in August, the younger man was introduced first, too. "We brought Origi on because it made sense to bring someone on for the counter attack," Klopp said then. In that respect, he's a more natural fit for the manager's demands.
His pace and power is an obvious asset against tiring defences, and when it's combined with a real desire to hound opponents, it makes Origi a dangerous proposition late on. This work rate makes him useful both offensively and defensively given Liverpool's pressing game.
In the win at Chelsea, Origi made 34 sprints to Sturridge's 29 despite not replacing him until the 57th minute. In the goalless draw against Manchester United, Origi was clocked as the fastest player on the pitch that day after entering with five minutes left.
He scores as a substitute, too. Under Klopp, he has netted four goals in the Premier League from the 299 minutes he's accumulated having been subbed on. That compares favourably with Sturridge's record of only one goal in 173 substitute minutes since the German's arrival.
As a result, he's become the go-to man from the bench. If ex-Reds striker David 'super sub' Fairclough came to regard such a tag as unhelpful, Origi inheriting it could be even worse news for Sturridge at a time when Firmino has established himself as the first-choice No 9.
Perhaps the key will be whether the player himself continues with the right mentality. Klopp has acknowledged that at a smaller club, Origi could play all the time, and with no European football to allow rotation, it could be frustrating. It's a situation he is keen to manage.
"I'd say I am close to Divock," Klopp said recently. "We have good talks. Will he get impatient? Maybe. What can I do? It can happen and I have to deal with it. That's why they have this thing between their nose and their chin - we can really talk about it.
"Life as a football player isn't always pure sunshine. There is a lot of work to do, and sometimes, you have to wait a bit longer. When you look back on your career at 35, you want to have been the best player you could have been."
In the case of Origi, as Klopp's predecessor suggested, there is almost no ceiling on the player that he could yet become. Already a popular figure with the Anfield crowd, the hope will be that the next big high of his career could be just around the corner.
