KLOPP SURE ORIGI WAS ON HIS WAY OUT
JURGEN KLOPP was stunned nobody came in with a serious offer for Divock Origi this summer.
And the Liverpool boss insists the out-of-favour Kop striker will go down as a club legend.
Origi, 26, made his first Reds start since January in Wednesday night’s 3-2 win over AC Milan in the Champions League.
The Belgium forward impressed with an assist for Mo Salah’s vital second-half equaliser before cramp forced him off after the hour mark.
Klopp is happy to have him at the club but admits he thought he’d be off in the last transfer window.
The German said: “To be 100 per cent honest, of course I thought he would maybe leave in the summer. But the football world is a crazy place and people obviously forgot how good he is.
“It is really difficult to get into this team. That’s just how it is and I have to decide about different positions, who I bring on, how I want to react before a game.
“That’s why Div was not in, he did nothing wrong.
“He trains, he gives everything and sometimes you still don’t make it into the squad.
“That really can happen, especially when everybody is fit.
“But for this game he was the right player to do it and he did really well.
“He was not injured, he had cramps, that’s normal and so now let’s see.
“I’m really happy I could give him the opportunity.
“Divock is a great guy and in 10 years when we look back he will be a Liverpool legend. But he is too young to be already seen as a legend so he has to play football.”
Origi has scored some big goals for the Reds including two in the fightback victory against Barcelona in the 2019 Champions League. He then netted the second in the final to beat Spurs and lift the trophy.
After Origi’s comeback show, AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli labelled Liverpool “dangerous” but admitted his side were overpowered.
The Italians overturned a 1-0 deficit at the end of the first half thanks to quick goals from Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz against the run of play.
But Liverpool’s dominance paid off after the interval as Salah made up for his earlier penalty miss with a goal and Jordan Henderson struck the winner.
Pioli said: “We played a really tough opponent and we put in a huge effort right to the very end. It is pretty indicative of the level we have achieved thus far.
“Liverpool are at a high level but we are not quite there yet. We will use this game to develop and to gain experience in this competition.
“Liverpool are dangerous. Probably we could have done a bit more but the level of our opponents punished us. That’s why we paid for the errors we made.”