Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has again heaped praise on Divock Origi after the Belgian came off the bench to give the Reds the edge in Sunday’s Merseyside derby.

The 27-year-old has not started a league game since January 2021 and has just 13 Premier League starts to his name since returning from his loan with Wolfsburg in 2018, with his time at Anfield set to come to an end when his contract expires in the summer.

Despite his limited opportunities, Origi is responsible for some of the biggest goals in Liverpool’s recent history and added another accolade to his CV when he came off the bench to score against fierce rivals Everton (again) in Sunday’s derby.

„He is a legend on and off the pitch,“ Klopp said of the striker. „He is fantastic footballer for me, he is a world-class striker, our best finisher, he always was and everyone would say the same. He does it in training and then not in squad and that is really hard, a really hard decision to make.

„The boys all are responsible for the situation we are in. Everybody loves Div and rightly so. He was again very decisive.“

Klopp went on to admit that Liverpool will struggle to replace Origi, whom he backed to ‚explode‘ at his next club – AC Milan are leading the race to sign him but there are other sides in the running too. 90min understands that there is significant interest in keeping him in England, with West Ham and Newcastle both monitoring his situation.

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„We will never miss a player more than him because if he leaves, he will explode wherever he goes,“ Klopp added. „He doesn’t always make the squad which is ridiculous, but he is there when we need him every time.

„He was involved in both goals; everything that we did in the second half, without Divock, wouldn’t have happened.“