Why Benteke could prove his doubters wrong at Liverpool

‘A target man and not what Liverpool need’, ‘he doesn’t suit our style of play’ and ‘he hasn’t got enough pace/mobility’ are just some of the general opinions I’ve garnered from various sources all over the internet in recent weeks, mostly Twitter, following our recent signing of Christian Benteke. These types of automatic responses are those who love to jump the gun and have their negativity heard immediately, so if it doesn’t pan out positively in the long run then they can have their ‘I told you so’ moment.

I don’t subscribe to this type of pessimistic way of thinking. It doesn’t help after a poor last season and most of us are all harbouring slivers of optimism about a possible excellent signing, regardless of fee and current perception. Let’s be honest with ourselves, we were shocking for most of last season. Finishing 6th in the league and having such poor Champions League & Europa League showings rendered the season over with about 8 games left to play.

In majority the poor season was down to a complete lack of fire-power up front. It wasn’t the chance creation that was our problem as Coutinho, Henderson, Ibe – and that other winger – were creating more than enough; it was the player on the receiving end of the assist that let us down time and time again. This is demonstrated in us being rated 4th in the Premier League last season in terms of ‘key passes’ with only Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea ahead of us.

The fact of the matter is; the players on the end of the chances created were usually Balotelli, Borini or Lambert. All of these played in disorientated patterns of being in favour and being out of favour with Rodgers ultimately ending up with him playing a midfielder as a

‘false-nine’ and being done with all three of them. It says a lot when our top 5 goal-scorers last season were all midfielders.

I know this can change with the recent striking acquisitions, namely Benteke. The aforementioned views on Benteke not being compatible to our style of play are formulated by people basing their views on the club and style of his last club. Aston Villa are a mid-table Premier League team and played a lot of long balls up to Benteke to hold up.

Villa played an average of 74 long balls per game last season (the 4th highest in the league) so this concocted version of Benteke has stemmed from here. But when you watch him you can tell he is very pliable player and isn’t just limited to one dimension which is what Villa utilised him for in his three seasons there. His heading is phenomenal and is a valuable weapon but he can play and Brendan knows this. Just take a look at his goal vs. Swindon on Sunday, an unbelievable finish from a lad who can only get better as he’s only 24. He has all the necessary attributes to really propel himself into being considered one of the best strikers in the league given the time.

If we do a little compare and contrast from last season’s striking options to now I think most fans would be pleased. Last season’s slim pickings were Lambert, Balotelli and Borini. Lambert has already gracefully left the club for West Brom and hopefully Balotelli and Borini will follow suit, although probably not as gracefully.

If we compare these three to the new trio of additions, Benteke, Origi and Ings, it’s like chalk and cheese. All three of the new lads are very mobile and quick across the ground, good in possession and can score goals, a far-cry from the struggle of last season’s shortcomings where mobility (an integral specification for a striker wanted by Rodgers’) was in such sparsity. Throw Firmino into the mix and I’d consider us to have made a considerable upgrade.

The one thing we will definitely, unequivocally, irrevocably be better at next season with Benteke in our side is corners. The amount of corners we have compared to how many result in a goal must be an extremely low percentage. Benteke will almost certainly have a positive impact in this area of our goal threat with his sheer size and quality heading ability. Hopefully directing us away from the resigned groans when we know for a fact that our chances of scoring at corners in recent years has been slim to zero.

Benteke also provides us with a plan B, if it does need to come to that. We only made an average of 17 crosses per game last year, joint-lowest in the league with Swansea. Nevertheless with the likes of Clyne, Ibe and even Moreno being adept at beating a man and delivering a cross, we can use his aerial dominance to our advantage. Also, with the fact that only 6 of our 52 goals last season came from set-pieces, it’s an area I’m sure that Brendan will want to address and maximise our goal ratio from.

If there’s definitely one thing I’ve learned with Liverpool players and strikers in particular; it’s never to judge too soon. Benteke could turn into an El-Hadji Diouf or a Mario Balotelli or maybe, just maybe, he could be our new Fernando Torres or Luis Suarez.

For more LFC-related stuff, follow me on Twitter: @m1cklfc

All stats used taken from www.whoscored.com