One player has been under the spotlight at Liverpool, especially after the arrival of Jurgen Klopp than any other and that person is the Belgian striker Christian Benteke. Purchased for a mind boggling 32.5 million pounds at the start of the season from Aston Villa, he was seen as one of the key figures that former manager Brendan Rodgers would use to take Liverpool back into the Champions League at least.
The 25-year-old striker did have a pretty good scoring record for Aston Villa and even was a Belgium international, so all signs were good except the part that Liverpool were not playing a crossing game, something that Benteke excelled in.
The striker did put up a good performance here and there for his new team, we all remember that excellent goal against Manchester United but those chances also came few and far in between. Cue the new manager coming in and even when Benteke was preferred to other strikers, he just could not perform.
The blame should not fall on the striker’s shoulders; after all, he is someone who thrives when balls are crossed into the box. That is something that Liverpool do not do on a regular basis, they don’t even have decent wingers and playing the ball into the feet of a big target man does not make sense.
Benteke struggled under Klopp and barely had any good games under the German. It isn’t the fault of either member however, Benteke is not the man to play silky counter-attacking football with, and he needs to be fed balls into the air where he can make a nuisance of himself that would have been ideal for the 25-year-old.
The Belgian scored only 10 goals from 42 games for the Reds last season, most of his appearances and goals also came from the bench and it was surely a sign of things to come for the former Villa man when players such as Roberto Firmino and Divock Origi were given the nod in the second half of the season.
The big question that arises is what are Liverpool going to do with such an expensive signing? The reality of the situation is that if a team plays with a lot of width and balls crossed into the box, Benteke would be a dream centre-forward to have. He has a decent amount of pace but his heading ability is second to none and he would be a handful for any defence in the air.
Liverpool are not going to go that route under Jurgen Klopp and if they are to keep Benteke, he would be a Plan B such as Rickie Lambert was after he was signed from Southampton, but the Belgian would not want to be in such a situation as his chances in the national team would also be reduced due to him not playing regularly for Liverpool.
The Reds should be looking to sell the star, there is no chance of Benteke actually reviving his career at the club unless they change their manager or Klopp changes his playing style, which frankly will not happen before Benteke gets a chance of proving his doubters wrong.
The Premier League club will have to probably take a hefty loss for the sum they initially paid for Benteke but like a bad relationship which just does not seem to go in the right direction, it should be ended and the Belgian should be sold as soon as possible.