{"id":1880,"date":"2020-10-28T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T15:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2020-10-28T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T15:52:11","slug":"its-time-to-say-so-long-divock-and-thanks-for-all-the-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/its-time-to-say-so-long-divock-and-thanks-for-all-the-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time To Say \u2018So Long Divock, And Thanks For All The Goals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The match against FC Midtjylland was a slog to watch. We can try to dress it up however we want, but it wasn\u2019t fun. The Reds barely came out of first gear and struggled to attain any sort of fluidity. There are loads of mitigating factors for that, of course. The lack of fans in the stadium means that there was no real sense of urgency, though it\u2019s also right to acknowledge that J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s Liverpool teams have put in lacklustre performances even when Anfield\u2019s been bouncing. The general makeshift nature of the side will have had an influence, as will the injury to Fabinho relatively early on in the game. Perhaps the biggest thing is that the makeshift team that end up losing a centre-back after half an hour was being asked to play a new formation that they\u2019re far from used to. In many ways, it\u2019s little wonder that everything seemed disjointed and the Reds looked a little bit lost for most of the first forty-five minutes or so.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Most condensed season in history is going to mean lots of injuries for all teams. Way more than normal. And that disrupts team dynamics and rhythm. Expect stuttering and patchy performances to be the norm in 2020\/21<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/1321210912741740550?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Patchy performances are likely to be what we see more often than not this season, owing to how many games need to be crammed into such a small amount of time. I also think we\u2019ll see plenty of injuries, which the team will have to learn to cope with. Indeed, my instinct is that the manager that is able to get their side to cope with no crowds, injuries and games coming thick and fast may well be the one that watches his captain lift a trophy or two come the end of the season. J\u00fcrgen Klopp and his backroom staff have proven themselves to be adept at responding to whatever is thrown their way, so you wouldn\u2019t put it beyond them to be the ones to achieve just that. The manager will have to find answers to some tough questions if he wants to see his side lift more silverware when this campaign reaches its conclusion, with one of the chief ones being whether or not there\u2019s room for Divock Origi. A cult hero he may be, but is that enough for modern Liverpool?<\/p>\n<h2>He\u2019s Given Us Plenty Of Memories<\/h2>\n<p>The first thing to acknowledge about Divock Origi is that he\u2019s been at the heart of some brilliant memories that Liverpool supporters have made in recent years. The scourge of Evertonians on more than one occasion, he\u2019ll go down as a cult hero for the Reds thanks to the winner he scored after ninety-six minutes when Jordan Pickford\u2019s arms weren\u2019t quite long enough to do anything useful with the ball. It\u2019s also easy to forget how good he was looking during the 2015-2016 season, scoring the first goal in our comeback against Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League. Who know what track his career would have taken had Everton\u2019s Ramiro Funes Mori not decided <a href=https:\/\/www.sportsjoe.ie\/football\/funes-mori-follows-up-disgusting-tackle-on-divock-origi-by-kissing-the-everton-badge-75339>to stamp on his ankle<\/a> in a game that the Blues were always going to lose. There are plenty of moments that I\u2019m sure I\u2019m forgetting about Origi\u2019s Liverpool career, but the issue that the striker has is that his career has been exactly that: one of moments.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#39;ll forever be thankful for Barcelona, Spurs, Everton and Newcastle, but watching Divock Origi play football makes me feel ill.<\/p>\n<p>Everything he does is just SO disjointed.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Henry Jackson (@HenryJackson87) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HenryJackson87\/status\/1321184957809778689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps nothing sums his time at Liverpool up better than his performance in the Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur at the end of the 2018-2019 season. From the moment he came on he was unable to make anything stick, with every touch being too heavy and every pass being woeful. He did practically nothing of any use, apart from score the goal that made it 2-0 and put the game beyond doubt. Of course, scoring that goal will mean that he\u2019s forever earned a place in Liverpudlian hearts, but the performance that came before he scored it should have given the manager pause for thought about his place in the squad. I\u2019d readily admit that J\u00fcrgen Klopp seems to love him a lot more than I do, believing that he can do a job when he\u2019s called upon. The German is significantly better at football than I\u2019ll ever be, but that\u2019s why bidding goodbye to the Belgian is one of those difficult decisions that he\u2019s going to have to make in the coming months.<\/p>\n<h2>He\u2019s Where Our Attacks Go To Die<\/h2>\n<p>Whether it be his goals against Barcelona to get us to the Champions League final, his finish when we got there or the number of times that he\u2019s humiliated Everton, there are plenty of reasons to love Divock Origi. The main issue is that this Liverpool team isn\u2019t set up for a player with the Belgian\u2019s skillset. Had Aston Villa signed him in the summer, for example, then I genuinely believe that he\u2019d get ten to fifteen goals for them. When he plays in our side, however, he\u2019s the place that good attacks go to die. He isn\u2019t quick enough of mind or body to be part of a free-flowing attack and more often than not he chews position for so long that the opposition has regrouped and tackled him. We saw it repeatedly against Midtjylland, with the attacker being the reason that our moves broke down more often than not. Had this been a one-off then I\u2019d be inclined to put it down to the same reasons then entire team wasn\u2019t great, but it isn\u2019t a one-off.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Currently wondering if Divock Origi can play Centre-Back. There doesn\u2019t seem to be much point in him in this current <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> squad otherwise. Another below par performance when given an opportunity tonight<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jack Gill (@jacklfcgill) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jacklfcgill\/status\/1321222957209968641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The tongue-in-cheek question of \u2018can he play centre-back\u2019 is answered with a not altogether joking response acknowledging that he definitely knows how to break up attacks. The signing of Diogo Jota in the summer as well as the January arrival of Takumi Minamino means that Origi\u2019s place in this Liverpool side is already much further down the pecking order than it was. If Harvey Elliott continues to develop at the same rate then it\u2019s not hard to imagine that he\u2019ll move above the Belgian in Klopp\u2019s thinking too. It\u2019s not that Origi is a bad player, far from it. It\u2019s just that he\u2019s not the right sort of player for how the German wants his Liverpool team to play and that will forever be a problem. I\u2019ll never not think of him fondly in the years to come, but right now when I see his name on the team sheet I can\u2019t help but think that the match ahead is going to be graft to watch. He\u2019s a man of many moments, but this is a team that has evolved past one-off moments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The match against FC Midtjylland was a slog to watch. We can try to dress it up however we want, but it wasn\u2019t fun. The Reds barely came out of first gear and struggled to attain any sort of fluidity. There are loads of mitigating factors for that, of course. The lack of fans in the stadium means that there was no real sense of urgency, though it\u2019s also right to acknowledge that J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s Liverpool teams have put in lacklustre performances even when Anfield\u2019s been bouncing. The general makeshift nature of the side will have had an influence, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1881,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/1881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}