OPINION
West Ham must exploit Liverpool’s hesitancy to give Divock Origi a chance by poaching the centre-forward from their clutches.
Goal stated on Monday that the Reds were only considering giving the 23-year-old attacker a chance to impress in pre-season and the Hammers must act quickly to trick them into selling their underrated talent.
The news outlet claim that Jurgen Klopp’s side are set to make a decision about a whole host of players returning to Anfield from loan spells and this could cause them to let superb talent slip through the fingers.
With competition already fierce for places at Anfield, with the Reds triumphantly finishing fourth in the Premier League, the forward could also be open to a move.
Manuel Pellegrini’s team need to ensure they’re the ones to benefit from any mistake, particularly in the case of Origi.
The centre-forward, who can also play on either flank as a winger, had a roller-coaster of a campaign during the 2017/18 season as he suffered many ups and downs while on loan at Wolfsburg.
The 23-year-old scored seven goals, while registering three assists, during the 36 games he featured in for the German side but his form was inconsistent.
Origi went through spells where he was in red hot form, only to be embarrassingly woeful in the games that followed and this cycle continued all the way to the end of the season.
However his inconsistency can soon be conquered as aside from having him stop switching positions, he moved from forward to winger quite often at Wolfsburg, a permanent move to a team that will give him regular football will allow him to settle.
If allowed to be rooted in one place and know his future is guaranteed in the following season, it might allow him to gain some sort of rhythm at a club.
Origi’s dribbling ability would be very helpful to the current Hammers team as he always finds a way to create space to have a run at goal.
While his finishing still needs work, it improved last season, his runs not only have defenders falling over themselves but lead to valuable space opening up for his teammates.
This could see Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini afforded more opportunities with Origi as one of their teammates at the London Stadium.
Therefore Pellegrini must poach Origi from Anfield this summer and make the most of the Reds being wrongly hesitant about giving him a chance.
