Klopp Talks Up Origi Ahead Of Possible Burnley Start

As Matt wrote about earlier today, Roberto Firmino is a serious doubt for tomorrow’s clash with Burnley. After a difficult week in which Bobby Firm’s training schedule was hampered, Reds manager Jürgen Klopp was forced to admit that the Brazilian may be rested tomorrow. With Henderson, Sturridge, Lovren, and Klavan all nursing injuries of their own, this is really bad timing.

But Herr Klopp still needs to name a team for tomorrow, and Liverpool need to put some more points on the board if they’re still serious about Top 4. And more to the point, they can’t beat Arsenal the way they did last week and then struggle against Burnley. It’s unseemly.

With that in mind, it’s looking more and more like Divock Origi is going to be handed a start tomorrow. And Klopp was eager to all parties— including possibly Origi and himself— that the young Belgian attacker would be up for the challenge. To demonstrate this, Klopp looked no further than Origi’s substitute appearance last week against Arsenal, in which he earned the assist on Georginio Wijnaldum’s gamewinning goal.

“Divock was good,” Klopp told reporters. “It was a nice sign. We’ve had a lot of talks in the last few weeks about what he needs to do. It was a very important sign for him and for us.”

It’s easy to say given Liverpool’s limited options but I think starting Origi is probably the best thing to do. Here’s hoping the young man has a hell of a game.