I did not write that lightly, but to miss all those important counterpoints in favour of a particular perspective is hard to ignore as anything but an agenda, and it is disgusting when that agenda is to denigrate one of our own players in a slanderous manner.
I think this is a huge part of the Origi conundrum. I think it is a common trope that it’s quite hard for young players when the only game time they get is in domestic cup games with a thrown together team, “having to play with the likes of Origi”. Yet, no one ever thinks about it in the opposite way, that it is quite hard to show something if all you have around you are younger players in a team that hasn’t played together before.
That is probably the most correct perspective. However, I’m less fussed about what it means for him than what it means for us. If the best solution for the club is to see him stay, and he is up for the challenge (and the implications of not playing a lot), then I want to see him stay. Certainly it doesn’t seem so far as though he’s pushing for a move away. If everything in Milner’s autobiography is to be taken as the truth, then I can only presume that he’s genuinely playing the long game here, betting that the benefits of staying and training under the current management team is better for his development than perhaps playing 90 minutes week in week out under the likes of Dyche.
Disagree. He did contribute quite a fair bit in 2019/20 as well, most notably the 5-2 against Everton, which leads me to my next point…
This is the same player about whom Jürgen said, the year before:
Div is unbelievably important for us, I was really happy that Mr Martinez was in the stadium because so he could watch this and see his qualities because when he [Origi] goes to the national team he never plays a second.
That’s always interesting when he’s coming back, no game actually so that he was good that he saw that. We knew it before, but if he needs a good feeling, needs to be in a confident mood then everybody knows what he is able to do.
Div [Divock Origi] was always so important for us and it was really nice as well that he can show his importance in a game like this which was obviously very important for us and scoring these kind of goals was extra class.
That was exceptional, the run, at the end it looks easy, it was a sensational pass from Sadio of course but making these two steps between the cetnre half and a goalie, that’s what a striker has to do actually, get that opportunity and then use it so at the end it was not the most difficult finish but there’s still a job to do.
The other one was just a world class goal, I don’t see that often. A good ball from Dejan but not easy to control I would say which shows his technique. He’s scored goals for us from all different angles.
Source is from the Echo, by way of the excellent Liverpool Gecko by the way.
Quite clearly, @Hope.in.your.heart is quite on the nail with regards to confidence. Perhaps one reason why he hasn’t done so well this season for minutes is because when we probably would want to have counted on him to provide the other forwards much-needed rest, it was also a time when we were having defensive issues. And bless him, being quick on the press is quite clearly not one of his strengths, so it made complete sense to not have him on the pitch, except for moments when we needed the extra height (the reason why we loaned Minamino out and not him, supposedly).
Again, I don’t think Jürgen doesn’t appreciate his qualities, I think the shitshow of a season we had especially with regards to injuries meant that he had to be a lot more cautious with what we could do tactically. But he’s also not indispensable, which means the right offer would see him go.
I am just not fond of the way he seems to get scapegoated a lot. Or where people peddle discredited myths about him, or any other player. Some players are just better, it is true. But we can stick to the facts about the players, instead of dragging in complete speculation that denigrates their characters. I think our team deserves better than that.
