If Daniel Sturridge doesn’t like Jurgen Klopp substituting him after the hour mark every week, he really won’t appreciate being left out of the biggest match of Liverpool’s season.
Express journalist Paul Joyce, a respected Liverpool source, suggests that Klopp will leave Sturridge on the bench this evening against Borussia Dortmund and instead select 20-year-old Divock Origi – his talented Belgian understudy.
Sturridge has consistently been withdrawn for Origi in recent weeks, with his counterpart providing more legs, physicality and pressing off the bench, but there’s been no selection until now that he’d usurp the Englishman’s spot as first-choice striker.
Joyce states that Klopp believes Liverpool will have to work incredibly hard this evening all over the field to pick up a good result, and is willing to utilise Origi’s running over Sturridge’s finishing.
Whether Klopp takes this risk, and whether it pays off, remains to be seen – but it will undoubtedly infuriate Sturridge who has time and again stated that he wants to be playing as much as possible having regained full fitness.
Klopp’s sparing use of Sturridge has mainly been to protect his health, but if the German selects Origi tonight in the Europa League quarterfinal first-leg, it’d be a purely tactical decision.