Christian Benteke Player Thread (Liverpool -> Crystal Palace)

I'm adamant that Benteke is nowhere near as bad as he's currently playing, he looks like a player lacking in belief in his own ability, but we've seen first hand what he's capable of when he's played against us.
I wouldn't advocate humping long balls forward to him, but definitely throwing a few crosses into the box seems like the common sense thing to do, it wouldn't even mean a change of tactics, just play the ball out wide be whipped in instead of always bring the ball into centre where two rows of four are blocking our path to goal.

Of course he isn't as bad as he looks at the moment mate, which is just as well. He needs not just crosses though, football is simple but it's not quite THAT simple. He needs crosses which he can anticipate where they are going to come from, where they are aiming towards, and when they will be delivered. As we don't have a natural crosser of the ball in the team he needs us to build the play out wide, lay it back and cross it. By that I mean cross it first time as it comes back, not after someone has stepped over it a couple of times or f***** around with it for 30 seconds. In short we need to get it into areas where it's fairly obvious we are going to cross it, then we need to cross it into a given space (say near post). If we do that (as Aston Villa used to on the odd occasion they got over the half-way line) then Benteke will score regularly just like he did for them.

If you do that when you have players such as Benteke up front, you become very difficult to play against. If on the other hand you take 30-40 seconds to get it into the box and the striker has no idea who is going to cross it, when they are going to cross it or where they are going to cross it, you make him much less dangerous. It's all pretty basic stuff really, but when teams do it and they have a striker who can attack it (much like when West Ham did it for Carroll against us this season) it is pretty close to being impossible to defend against. The delivery though has to come in as soon as there is the opportunity to put it there, fuss and fart about and the big man can't anticipate it.

I'm adamant that Benteke is nowhere near as bad as he's currently playing, he looks like a player lacking in belief in his own ability, but we've seen first hand what he's capable of when he's played against us.
I wouldn't advocate humping long balls forward to him, but definitely throwing a few crosses into the box seems like the common sense thing to do, it wouldn't even mean a change of tactics, just play the ball out wide be whipped in instead of always bring the ball into centre where two rows of four are blocking our path to goal.

You're making the terrible mistake of judging of how good a big striker is against us.

The lad from Oldham looked a complete beast against us, why do you think we struggle so much from set-pieces. It's our defenders that can't handle big units, we've had the same issue since Carra left even before when they isolated Skrtel.

As for Mick talking in depth of how predictable our crosses need to be for him, just excuse after excuse.

Watch him on any pass that's lofted up to him he runs underneath it all the time, with plenty of time to 'anticipate' or 'predict'.

Watch his movement patterns when we're about to cross in a ball (on the first available opportunity when it is bloody obvious a cross is coming in) his movement is behind defenders waiting for the cross to do all the work, heaven forbid he should use his bloody head and get in front of a man.

When he comes deep his general idea is pass it wide and return, he doesn't get involved in play it creates nothing apart from taking him out of the box and then as he dawdles back he lingers on the edge as play gets ahead of him.

Excuses wont change the fact that his movement is horrific, his anticipation is dire and while some of that can be put down to poor confidence a sample size as big as we now have there should be signs that he is better than he is and he simply isn't. He'll be one of the first out the exit door in the summer and thankfully we can stop discussing these ridiculous excuses dreamed up for a player out of his depth.

Maybe a lesson for the committee would be to give players a footballing IQ test because he seems lacking in basic knowledge of the game.
Although he spends time at melwood doing drills and having his position explained to him when he gets on the pitch he seems to forget most of it. If he is not careful he will be one of those players that will be consigned to the history books as having everything needed to be world class other than a brain

You're making the terrible mistake of judging of how good a big striker is against us.

The lad from Oldham looked a complete beast against us, why do you think we struggle so much from set-pieces. It's our defenders that can't handle big units, we've had the same issue since Carra left even before when they isolated Skrtel.

As for Mick talking in depth of how predictable our crosses need to be for him, just excuse after excuse.

Watch him on any pass that's lofted up to him he runs underneath it all the time, with plenty of time to 'anticipate' or 'predict'.

Watch his movement patterns when we're about to cross in a ball (on the first available opportunity when it is bloody obvious a cross is coming in) his movement is behind defenders waiting for the cross to do all the work, heaven forbid he should use his bloody head and get in front of a man.

When he comes deep his general idea is pass it wide and return, he doesn't get involved in play it creates nothing apart from taking him out of the box and then as he dawdles back he lingers on the edge as play gets ahead of him.

Excuses wont change the fact that his movement is horrific, his anticipation is dire and while some of that can be put down to poor confidence a sample size as big as we now have there should be signs that he is better than he is and he simply isn't. He'll be one of the first out the exit door in the summer and thankfully we can stop discussing these ridiculous excuses dreamed up for a player out of his depth.

Young Brannigan sent in some nice passes , one free kick in particular and Benteke was no where to be seen . It's all about the team should play to Benteke's strengths , why not Benteke play to the teams .

Young Brannigan sent in some nice passes , one free kick in particular and Benteke was no where to be seen . It's all about the team should play to Benteke's strengths , why not Benteke play to the teams .

There were numerous times he had brilliant opportunities. The one 6 yards out that he puts out for a thrown-in, in some recent games he's played we've had the highest number of crosses into the box for that week of games. It's simply people searching for an excuse for poor play.

Or when he's missing from 3 yards out when the ball is literally placed on his head. When people want crosses to be that good you might as well buy any old striker who's 6ft + because they're adding nothing, in fact Benteke still manages to miss!

Watch Giroud, while I'm not a big fan of tall strikers I would love Benteke to watch how he gets in front of a player, uses his body shape to restrict their jumping ability and most of all get to the damn flight of the ball first. It's the single most important part of any striker's arsenal if they want to be a dominant force in the air. You must be able to time your run with the trajectory of the ball, you don't need a science lesson to explain it but Benteke just doesn't have a bloody clue.

There were numerous times he had brilliant opportunities. The one 6 yards out that he puts out for a thrown-in, in some recent games he's played we've had the highest number of crosses into the box for that week of games. It's simply people searching for an excuse for poor play.

Or when he's missing from 3 yards out when the ball is literally placed on his head. When people want crosses to be that good you might as well buy any old striker who's 6ft + because they're adding nothing, in fact Benteke still manages to miss!

Watch Giroud, while I'm not a big fan of tall strikers I would love Benteke to watch how he gets in front of a player, uses his body shape to restrict their jumping ability and most of all get to the damn flight of the ball first. It's the single most important part of any striker's arsenal if they want to be a dominant force in the air. You must be able to time your run with the trajectory of the ball, you don't need a science lesson to explain it but Benteke just doesn't have a bloody clue.

I've noticed on numerous occasions how weak his heading is and when he does manage to get the head to the ball he heads it up . He should try head it down and  get the bounce he's big enough ffs .

I believe (some) people are trying too hard to find excuses for this player who seems to not have it in him to make it at the top club.

For a striker, his game intelligence is attrocious. His finishing is pretty bad.I personally don't remember him winning any cross in the past few matches. Call it as "low confidence" as you want, to me its just a sign of weak mentality that is not suitable for a top club. Atleast put  a shift in the match FFS!

Of course he isn't as bad as he looks at the moment mate, which is just as well. He needs not just crosses though, football is simple but it's not quite THAT simple. He needs crosses which he can anticipate where they are going to come from, where they are aiming towards, and when they will be delivered. As we don't have a natural crosser of the ball in the team he needs us to build the play out wide, lay it back and cross it. By that I mean cross it first time as it comes back, not after someone has stepped over it a couple of times or f***** around with it for 30 seconds. In short we need to get it into areas where it's fairly obvious we are going to cross it, then we need to cross it into a given space (say near post). If we do that (as Aston Villa used to on the odd occasion they got over the half-way line) then Benteke will score regularly just like he did for them.

If you do that when you have players such as Benteke up front, you become very difficult to play against. If on the other hand you take 30-40 seconds to get it into the box and the striker has no idea who is going to cross it, when they are going to cross it or where they are going to cross it, you make him much less dangerous. It's all pretty basic stuff really, but when teams do it and they have a striker who can attack it (much like when West Ham did it for Carroll against us this season) it is pretty close to being impossible to defend against. The delivery though has to come in as soon as there is the opportunity to put it there, fuss and fart about and the big man can't anticipate it.

You're making the terrible mistake of judging of how good a big striker is against us.

The lad from Oldham looked a complete beast against us, why do you think we struggle so much from set-pieces. It's our defenders that can't handle big units, we've had the same issue since Carra left even before when they isolated Skrtel.

As for Mick talking in depth of how predictable our crosses need to be for him, just excuse after excuse.

Watch him on any pass that's lofted up to him he runs underneath it all the time, with plenty of time to 'anticipate' or 'predict'.

Watch his movement patterns when we're about to cross in a ball (on the first available opportunity when it is bloody obvious a cross is coming in) his movement is behind defenders waiting for the cross to do all the work, heaven forbid he should use his bloody head and get in front of a man.

When he comes deep his general idea is pass it wide and return, he doesn't get involved in play it creates nothing apart from taking him out of the box and then as he dawdles back he lingers on the edge as play gets ahead of him.

Excuses wont change the fact that his movement is horrific, his anticipation is dire and while some of that can be put down to poor confidence a sample size as big as we now have there should be signs that he is better than he is and he simply isn't. He'll be one of the first out the exit door in the summer and thankfully we can stop discussing these ridiculous excuses dreamed up for a player out of his depth.

The perfect example of how two people can have differing views of the same thing!
We have a real problem at the minute, we don't get enough crosses in, and Benteke's anticipation of the ones that do come in is sh*t!
I've seen Big Ben get on the end of crosses and assists many times, so I've no reason to believe he's not capable of doing it for us.
Yes gotten until the summer to get his sh*t together or he will be moved on.

So its onwards we march with Big Ben at the helm of the ship as our only realistic fit striker , now get your sh*t together in the next three and half months and you might rescue your lfc career , AM I JUST HOPING ?

You're making the terrible mistake of judging of how good a big striker is against us.

The lad from Oldham looked a complete beast against us, why do you think we struggle so much from set-pieces. It's our defenders that can't handle big units, we've had the same issue since Carra left even before when they isolated Skrtel.

As for Mick talking in depth of how predictable our crosses need to be for him, just excuse after excuse.

Watch him on any pass that's lofted up to him he runs underneath it all the time, with plenty of time to 'anticipate' or 'predict'.

Watch his movement patterns when we're about to cross in a ball (on the first available opportunity when it is bloody obvious a cross is coming in) his movement is behind defenders waiting for the cross to do all the work, heaven forbid he should use his bloody head and get in front of a man.

When he comes deep his general idea is pass it wide and return, he doesn't get involved in play it creates nothing apart from taking him out of the box and then as he dawdles back he lingers on the edge as play gets ahead of him.

Excuses wont change the fact that his movement is horrific, his anticipation is dire and while some of that can be put down to poor confidence a sample size as big as we now have there should be signs that he is better than he is and he simply isn't. He'll be one of the first out the exit door in the summer and thankfully we can stop discussing these ridiculous excuses dreamed up for a player out of his depth.

Spot on

especially on the movement, out of 5 crosses he attacks once and the other 4 he lingers outside of the box. Fernando Torres was also a target man, but he was a world class target man because he used to get in the end of those crosses and his movement was one of the best I have ever seen.

Benteke's control is not that even good, most of the time he needs to take a couple of touches in order to control the ball and this makes it easier for the oppo defender to close him down. He is a good player coming out of the bench to give a bit of balance or if we are looking to play the long ball so he can get the headers in, but he is no where near good enough to be in the first XI for a top 4 challenging team.

He's a strong lad but never uses his strength, how is that the fault of his team mates?
How is it his team mates fault that f**king Exeter, disrespect intended, are able to effectively marshal him out of 2 matches, or is that Klopp's fault perhaps?

His movement is terrible, his in game intelligence is terrible, his passing is terrible, his anticipation is terrible, his shooting is average, his commitment and passion is terrible, in summary HE IS TERRIBLE!

I think Christian's record in the EPL carries some weight. The problem for many of us is how did we identify him as a player who would fit into the club and score lots of goals. Andy Carroll was dumped by Brendan straight away as he identified quite rightly that we could not play him in our system. We the had Luis and Daniel the perfect players for our system and we all know how good they were. Then having lost Luis we bought Lambert a big lumbering slow CF and then Balotelli  both players failed to make the grade and were sold on and loaned out.
So with this information and experience available who was it that said what about Christian Benteke for £32 mil?.

I think Christian's record in the EPL carries some weight. The problem for many of us is how did we identify him as a player who would fit into the club and score lots of goals. Andy Carroll was dumped by Brendan straight away as he identified quite rightly that we could not play him in our system. We the had Luis and Daniel the perfect players for our system and we all know how good they were. Then having lost Luis we bought Lambert a big lumbering slow CF and then Balotelli  both players failed to make the grade and were sold on and loaned out.
So with this information and experience available who was it that said what about Christian Benteke for £32 mil?.

Some idiot on the tranny committee

I'll tell you how useless Benteke was last night....I would have done better than him on that pitch last night 

I'm sorry but I have completely lost patience with him now, I've watched him very closely this year and he's just getting worse, lost all confidence, would sooner pass in the area rather than have a shot at goal, he doesn't use his strength and power and half the time looks totally disinterested, for me he's a Balotelli mark 2, lazy, get shut in the summer, we can do so much better can't we

Clearly doesn't have the mentality to lead the line for a big club.  Is much more comfortable being the biggest fish in a small pond.  Lot of players have that issue.  He needs to go back to a mid-table team.

Hard to know how much of this BR believes, and how much he wants to believe it given Benteke was 'his player'
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/liverpool/story/2800183/christian-benteke-needs-time-under-klopp-like-lewandowski

Hard to know how much of this BR believes, and how much he wants to believe it given Benteke was 'his player'
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/liverpool/story/2800183/christian-benteke-needs-time-under-klopp-like-lewandowski

Does he ever shut up talking .

I'll tell you how useless Benteke was last night....I would have done better than him on that pitch last night 

I'm sorry but I have completely lost patience with him now, I've watched him very closely this year and he's just getting worse, lost all confidence, would sooner pass in the area rather than have a shot at goal, he doesn't use his strength and power and half the time looks totally disinterested, for me he's a Balotelli mark 2, lazy, get shut in the summer, we can do so much better can't we

    

Agreed!

Does he ever shut up talking .

Do any of us when asked (or not asked for that matter)?

Do any of us when asked (or not asked for that matter)?

Is he been asked or is he throwing himself at the media . i think what was said between him and Klopp " if it happened that is " should have stayed private . Do you not think?

Is he been asked or is he throwing himself at the media . i think what was said between him and Klopp " if it happened that is " should have stayed private . Do you not think?

Not trying to direct this at you specifically, but who cares, so many people speculating about stuff and we have no idea what's going on. So what Brendan is talking in the media, it's not like he's saying anything detrimental to the club. Maybe we could all grow up and stop worrying about what Brendan's doing and worry about what our current boss is doing?

Not trying to direct this at you specifically, but who cares, so many people speculating about stuff and we have no idea what's going on. So what Brendan is talking in the media, it's not like he's saying anything detrimental to the club. Maybe we could all grow up and stop worrying about what Brendan's doing and worry about what our current boss is doing?

The thing is if our current boss spoke to our previous boss in a private capacity then it should stay private .

The thing is if our current boss spoke to our previous boss in a private capacity then it should stay private .

Only if Klopp specifically told Brendan not to discuss things, it's just not a big deal to me we have bigger problems right now namely what's going on on the pitch.