Speaking ahead of the West Ham game, manager Brendan Rodgers has expressed his delight at the impact of new signing Christian Benteke, hailing him for proving his critics wrong.
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Liverpool FC have scored only two goals in their opening three games, with new signing Benteke getting off the mark against Bournemouth.
The lack of fire power up front was touted as one of the biggest reasons for a poor season in 2014-15. when the club finished sixth in the league. Daniel Sturridge missed most of the season and strikers Rickie Lambert, Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini simply were not good enough to make an impact for the Reds.
Christian Benteke was one of Brendan Rodgersa primary targets to solve the goal scoring problem at Liverpool FC. The club hierarchy duly obliged and signed the player for a reported 32.5 million GBP from Aston Villa, where the player had averaged a goal every other game.
Rodgers delighted with Benteke for proving critics wrong
While he may have averaged a goal every other game at a struggling Premier League outfit, there were fears that the player might not fit in with the style of play at Anfield. Once bitten twice shy following the Balotelli transfer, Liverpol FC were quite skeptical towards the Benteke signing. Balotelli had also scored a lot of goals with Milan – more than 30 in 2013/14 – before signing for Liverpool. However, he had failed to adjust to Rodgers’ style of play and struggled before being frozen out.
The fear of the Reds faithful was compounded when Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood warned the Belgian to not move to Liverpool FC as there was a no point going to a club where they dona t cross the balla .
However, Rodgers insisted that the player will adapt to the style of play and that his strengths were not restricted to merely heading in goals from crosses.
With Benteke looking good in the first three games, linking up well with Coutinho, Rodgers expressed his delight at the Belgian proving his critics wrong. Speaking ahead of the West Ham game, he was quoted saying by the official club website: a Ia m glad for Christian because he came here and all the headlines were about him just being a battering ram up front.
a He has shown fairly clearly, especially in the game the other night, that hea s a wonderful footballer as well. He gets some coverage which is a little bit misguided just because of his size and frame.
a But I see in the games and in training that hea s got a wonderful touch for such a big player. His movement, you see he can run in behind, hea s mobile and athletic.
a That combination with him, Firmino and the other guys coming in is improving every day in training.a