Former Belgium coach Gert Verheyen has urged Divock Origi to leave Liverpool in light of his fall down the pecking order on Merseyside in recent years.
The striker has earned sparse first-team involvement for the Anfield giants under Jurgen Klopp’s charge and has had to serve as a bit-part player in the Liverpool fold.
Klopp surprisingly retained the Belgian forward beyond this summer’s transfer window but Origi’s old U19 coach Verheyen in his interview with Het Nieuwsblad sounded out that the player should be nearing the exit door at Anfield for a move elsewhere.
“We just don’t know how good he is today. In his youth, Divock was a class act. But by staying with Liverpool and playing little, he hasn’t developed further.”
“Can you blame him [for staying at Anfield]? That’s his choice. Liverpool must be a fantastic club to play for.
“But at some point you want to play, don’t you?
“I think it would be a shame for Origi’s talent. The only thing I never felt about Divock was the urge – the urge to score, a striker who says ‘I scored two, now I want three.’
“Not that he didn’t do his best. We played with the U19s in a dilapidated stadium in Serbia where you had to wash yourself in a tub of water, so to speak. Divock tried his best. But scoring more, wanting more? That he didn’t.
“Can he extend that to his career choices?”
Origi’s career in the Reds shirt has failed to take off in spite of encouraging signs from his displays over the years with his inconsistency in form attributed as a major factor.
Diogo Jota’s move to Liverpool in the summer of 2020 added to Origi’s woes with the former becoming Jurgen Klopp go-to man to provide cover in the forward roles for the Merseyside heavyweights.
