I love a good analogy. Always have. So when I had this epiphany earlier this week about Divock Origi, I just had to share it. Divock Origi is the new Dejan Lovren. The player that has turned from being a valued asset into an apparent scapegoat. I don’t think any supporter honestly is blaming Divock for dropping points like they used to do with Dejan, at least not yet. But yesterday we watched a makeshift Liverpool eleven dominate possession against Brighton for 60 minutes without sniffing the goal. Mo Salah’s early miss was likely the only legitimate scoring chance we had and that wasn’t even close. Bring on big Divvy and the Ox for the final thirty minutes, and nothing changed. The entire squad, short of Caiomhin Kelleher, was below their level of standard. But for some reason, every summary I read about the match found it appropriate to comment about Divock Origi. Every single one. Some glossed over the abject display of form from Shaqiri, while others failed to notice Oxlade-Chamberlain’s lack of production and involvement. It’s because Divock is the new Dejan. Every time his number gets called, the spotlight is on him. I truly believe that everyone wants him to succeed out there. If you’re a Liverpool fan, how could you not? When Dejan Lovren got the start, the spotlight was on him. Fans nervously watched for 90 minutes waiting for the next mistake that would cost Liverpool. Sometimes he would make a mistake that would lead to conceding a goal, but many times I would see fans find a way to blame him for any goal possible. It seemed to drive their own personal narrative that the player is shite and should never play for the club again. I’m not sure we are there yet with Divock Origi, but from what I have been reading on social media we are not that far off.
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Is it really fair to put this team’s poor run of form on Divock? I don’t think many supporters would actually make that claim. Confidence is contagious, and unfortunately so is a lack of it. If you really look at the progression of Divock Origi, it’s actually quite remarkable. Liverpool signed the striker from Lille in 2014 after the 18-year old kid stole the spotlight on a strong Belgian squad in the World Cup. The fee was only £10-million, and it seemed like great business at the time. He was immediately loaned back to Lille for the upcoming season and debuted for LFC on September 12, 2015. Amazingly he was only playing for Liverpool less than a month before the Klopp reign came to town. For some reason I had always thought he was around the club long before Klopp, but that’s not the case. He impressed early for a 20-year old kid, scoring ten goals in 33 matches of all competitions. But that first season ended badly for him as some dickhead Everton defender named Ramiro Funes Mori needlessly stomped on his ankle, getting a straight red in the process. The ankle injury ended his season, and seemingly might’ve stagnated his progression as a player as well.
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I went to two matches at Anfield in his sophomore season at Liverpool, and saw him score in both of those matches (a 3-1 win against Everton and a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth). He was just about to turn 22 years old, and I recall thinking his ceiling was still fairly high as the season ended. But then the club went out that next summer and signed Mohammed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Dominic Solanke. All three were exciting attacking threats, with Solanke raising many eyebrows after a startling performance winning the Golden Ball for England’s U-20 World Cup champion team. Everyone loves their shiny new toys, but when you don’t have room to store them in your closet you need to downsize. With no rooms left in the inn for Divock, he was loaned out to Wolfsburg in hopes to continue his development. That loan spell turned out to be a disaster, and really was the first indicator of his true value. The goals simply weren’t coming. I’ll be the first to admit that I never saw him play a single game for Wolfsburg, but I was a bit surprised to see he was still on the squad when the 2018-19 campaign started. I’m not sure if Klopp truly wanted to keep him, or if simply that Michael Edwards couldn’t find a suitable transfer fee from another club to ship him out. Either way when the transfer window had closed, Divock Origi was still a Red. To me he was just an afterthought, perhaps like another Jose Enrique or Alberto Moreno. Players happy to play with the reserves while collecting a nice weekly wage that they could never get at another club in another league. He didn’t even sniff the bench until late October that season. Even when Klopp called his number in the 79th minute at Belgrade while down two goals, I thought it was a move out of sheer desperation. Nothing else worked against the Serbians that night, why not try something they surely hadn’t prepared for? The same thoughts crept inside my head four weeks later when he entered the Anfield pitch with only minutes to play against Everton. We all know what happened next. Laughing at Pickford and every other Evertonian. Saving us against Newcastle. Bracing against Barcelona. And of course, sealing our 6th European Cup against Spurs in Madrid. It was a magical six-month stretch, something that no one saw coming. Except maybe Klopp, but even there I have my doubts. Magical. Flash-forward to the next season, when we eventually would win our 19th league title, he was back to bang average. Six goals in 42 appearances. Hell, for a striker that’s probably below bang average. Not so magical.
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I mentioned before that I love a good analogy. I’m a huge Philadephia Eagles fan in American football. Nick Foles was a backup quarterback that got the call to finish the greatest season in team history winning their only Super Bowl in the process. When their star quarterback Carson Wentz returned from his knee injury the next preseason, people actually debated whether or not they should start Foles over him based on the Super Bowl success. In all honesty, Foles found form at the perfect time. He caught lightning in a bottle and had no business beating a better Patriot team for that title. Over time he would be revealed to be exactly what everyone thought he was. A serviceable quarterback that can do a job at times, but not a gamechanger. In other words, he’s Divock Origi. A player that gets way too much credit for having found a moderate stretch of games with great results.
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I started thinking back to that magical stretch run, trying to learn more about how he plays. I started analyzing his big goals. Against Everton, that chance was created because a momentary lapse in judgment by Jordan Pickford. Don’t get me wrong, Divock anticipated the play well and was the only player within five yards of the ball at the time, but that chance never happens if Pickford simply knocks the ball over for a cornerkick. The next gamewinner at Newcastle, came off a set piece brilliantly played in by Shaqiri. If you watch the replay, it could’ve been called an own goal to be fair. But again, Divock found himself to be in the right place at the right time. Three days later against Barcelona, he scored the opener after Jordan Henderson’s initial effort was saved by the keeper. He tapped into an open net. Right place, right time. The winner that day came from a brilliant “corner taken quickly” and smartly by Trent Alexander-Arnold. Unmarked he tapped in, albeit not exactly as easy as the first goal that day. But still again… right place, right time. And that second goal against Spurs in the Champions League Final? Well-struck to the only place that Hugo Lloris couldn’t touch on the far post, but he was left open and was found with a nice pass from Joel Matip. Not everyone can execute that goal like he did, but once again he was in the right place at the right time.
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I’m noticing a trend. Divock Origi was credited with being a savior that season, and he certainly delivered some huge goals. But none of those goals were the kind that he created for himself. The kind of goals we used to see Luis Suarez score, or the kind that we often see Mo Salah and Sadio Mane score today. Results matter, of course, and someone still has to find the back of the net. But maybe it’s a little naïve of us to think that he can change the course of the game. If Liverpool can’t generate decent scoring chances in the first sixty minutes like they failed to do against Brighton yesterday, then why would we think the insertion of Divock Origi would change that?
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Still the expectations are there. People think back to that glorious stretch in 2018. He’s saved our ass before; he could do it again. Right? That’s not reality, though. Reality is that he used to be a good player on an average team. The talent level of this Liverpool squad has improved exponentially around him while his development went stale. Strange to think that a 25-year old player has reached his ceiling or passed his prime, but it’s possible that is the case. Now he’s just an average player on a really good team. Look at the players on the squad in his first season compared to today. Night and day. Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking he’s anything more than another option on a team decimated by injuries. But Klopp seems to see something in him, and he does see a lot more of the squad than we do. Maybe we should heed to his plan. Origi is not the problem. But I also don’t think he’s the solution either. And I think we all need to start remembering that.
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As I said before, confidence is contagious. He was brimming with it for that stretch of matches back in 2019, but that has now disappeared. I hope he might be able to relocate some again. Until that day comes, he remains fifth or sixth choice on a team loaded with talent. And when Diogo Jota returns to fitness, you likely won’t see much more of Divock Origi. Maybe the team will collectively find their confidence, and he can benefit as a result. He’s never been a game-changing talent for Liverpool, just a player that knows how to find the right place for the right time. Without help from somewhere else, he’s not going to be able to deliver the goals.
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I want to conclude this article with one correction I stated earlier. Divock Origi is not Dejan Lovren. The Croatian centerback never got credit for winning big games, except maybe that one against Dortmund. Defenders rarely do. Divock Origi is Nick Foles. A journeyman quarterback in the NFL that now has a statue sitting at the entrance to the home stadium of a team with some of the most passionate supporters in the land. History will remember the importance of Divock’s biggest goals, and he should be immortalized for it with his own statue around the grounds at Anfield. I look forward to seeing that one day if and when it comes.
YNWA,
Ken Kendra
The opinions expressed in this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect that of LFC Raleigh or Liverpool Football Club. I am the author of the book “Walking Through The Storm” and “The Golden Sky” both available on Amazon, Kindle, and other book depository outlets. Follow me on Twitter: @kjkendra11