Origi shines, Karius sulks

The fortunes of Divock Origi and Loris Karius could not have been more contrasting.

On a day Liverpool returned to winning ways with a 3-0 away win over Middlesbrough, Origi underlined his growing importance to the club with his fifth goal in five games.

Karius, dropped from the first XI in yesterday morning's (Singapore time) match after a series of clangers, never left the bench.

For Origi, his persistence and patience are paying off.

His clinical finish on the hour mark - sandwiched between Adam Lallana's strikes in the 29th and 68th minutes - must be reassuring for Juergen Klopp, who must make do without the injured Philippe Coutinho for at least another two weeks, and is also about to lose Senegal international Sadio Mane to the African Nations Cup for up to five weeks.

The 21-year-old Belgian striker, though, insisted that this is no time to rest on his laurels.

"I do my best," Origi explained to Liverpoolfc.com.

"You work in the week and at the weekend you can express (yourself). You just have to keep on working.

"I have very big goals. For me, it's only the beginning - I have to keep on making steps. At the end of the season, then you have time to reflect."

VICTORY

The convincing victory at the Riverside Stadium was a timely one for a Liverpool side who picked up just one point from their previous two matches against West Ham and Bournemouth.

They certainly need the confidence boost before taking on Merseyside rivals Everton next Monday.

Origi, who scored against the Toffees at Anfield last term, said: "It is a huge, huge game.

"Now we have to recover from this game, take the good things from this game and improve the less good things and have good training.

"We will go there with very, very big motivation."

Keeping the spirits up may not be such a straightforward thing for Karius though.

The 23-year-old goalkeeper paid for his recent spate of errors with his starting place, and may have to once again play second fiddle to Simon Mignolet at Goodison Park.

Klopp, though, insisted that he is "really happy with our goalkeeping situation".

GOALKEEPING SITUATION

He said: "We have three outstanding young goalkeepers so the goalkeeping situation at Liverpool is really good, and that's why there's no reason to push one through.

"We want to develop the players. We don't want to convince people that he's not bad, we are fine with our boys.

"Loris is very young and a great talent and everything will be very good in the end but there is no time-frame for when he will be back."

Klopp, however, admitted that Karius did not take his omission from the starting line-up too well.

After yesterday's victory, Karius walked back to the team bus without saying a word.

Said the Liverpool manager: "You can imagine that he did not immediately want a hug.

"But this is a normal decision.

"If it's not the best moment you step aside, improve, get back to your best and we'll see what happens.

"It's all okay but, of course, in the first moment it's not the best moment in life." 
- WIRE SERVICES