Origi Ready to Take the Next Step

Divock Origi hasn't exactly set the Premier League alight since arriving last summer, a year after Liverpool first bought the promising youngster from Lille before sending him back for a rocky final season on loan. It's far too early to write off the highly promising 20-year-old, though.

Only just past his teens and adjusting to life in a new league and new country, Origi has shown flashes of great promise—especially when given license to roam wide—and his performances for Belgium at the World Cup speak to the prodigious talent he is and the sort of player he can become if given time.

The hope will be that new manager Jürgen Klopp is just the man to nurture that talent, to help Origi become one of the game's elite attackers. For his part, the striker feels positive about his first month with Klopp. Even if the results personally haven't been there on the pitch, Origi sees a lot of early positives.

"Every trainer has his own way of managing and his own methods," the young striker told the club's official website. "The thing I like is that he's very direct and can show his plan and convince everybody with his ideas very quickly. That is the one thing that struck me from the start of his training sessions."

Goals haven't yet arrived, and for a striker that's always going to be the primary concern. Still, when he's been given the chance, Origi has worked hard for the team, consistently covering far more ground than most strikers tend to do. At the very least, it's a sign he's fully committed to Klopp's high pressure approach.

"I try to help the team where I can," he added. "It is nice to know I was able to contribute in this way. I would say that I prefer [to play striker], but I am young and I will play wherever the coach needs me. I can adapt. I still have a lot of things that I can show to the fans here."