Divock Origi has been a Liverpool player for more than two years now. He was signed back in July 2014 for a fee said to be in the region of £10 million. No sooner had he put pen to paper on a deal with a five-year duration at Anfield, than the attacker was loaned back to Lille.
It was an indication that the Reds hierarchy valued the potential in the young Belgium international, now 21. He knew he faced a long, hard road ahead of him to start to make an impact on Merseyside and he knuckled down and worked hard at his game.
Origi knew his time would come and that if he remained patient and acted diligently, accepted tutoring and replicated his passion on the pitch and turned it into goals, he would come good under Jurgen Klopp.
Fast forward to last weekend and Origi had another chance to prove his worth. He snatched opportunity with both hands and made a big impression after coming on for the injured Philippe Coutinho around the half hour mark of the Preneir League encounter with Sunderland at Anfield.
Indeed, Origi managed to score in the 2-0 win to help Liverpool maintain their bid for the top flight title and with the race for the premiership title continuing to be the closest in years punters have a range of ways of enhancing their chances on the william hill acca.
Again, given the chance to impress a few days later when Klopp’s men took on Garry Monk’s Championship outfit Leeds United in the EFL Cup, Origi didn’t disappoint and scored again as the Reds chalked up a 2-0 win. It means they went into a mouth-watering semi-final against Southampton.
Klopp believes that Origi taking responsibility in the name of the cause wasn’t a surprise to him given how focused and prepared the youngster shows himself to be during training sessions at the club’s Melwood trading ground.
Klopp said:
“I said it after the Sunderland game — timing is really important. You don’t always have influence on timing, but in this case it worked out really well because it was exactly one or two weeks since Div was back in shape, in the race, and has the good shape.”
“That was lucky, I’d say, so he was ready for coming in. Everybody could see the difference between one or two substitutions when he came in a little bit earlier, it was not too easy for him.”
“He is still 21 and he hasn’t had the most match time in the last few months, so then he had no rhythm but he is always working, never moaning —and sometimes a little more confident, a little less confident, how it is with all people in all parts of life.”
“I was really happy for him having this opportunity and being in the shape to use it. And it was really nice to see.”