Christian Benteke Player Thread (Liverpool -> Crystal Palace)

Thought he was excellent tonight and I'd say there's plenty of improvement still to come once his fitness is better and he's used to his team mates.  Lovely to have a bully up top but even better is he's a bully with talent 

Impressive performance, one of the main positives of the game tonight.

Long may it continue.

Absolute workhorse tonight, we just need to work on supplying him with better quality balls, and make sure someone is always there to benefit from his knockdowns.
And to think some people said he was just another Balotelli!

Great performance from Benteke tonight. Wins everything in the air, links up well, and showed good focus on his goal. Early days, but I'm linking what he offers so far.

Really hope he can bully Arsenal's soft-ass backline next week.

Where is Hammanstheman now? Would love to hear his take on Benteke's start and how he's too immobile for us 

I knew he would put in a shift Si and that he had good mobility and could hold up play.

What impressed me most were some of his passes, superb stuff.

Agreed. I actually think he could do more in terms of closing down and defending from the front but I suspect he's not right now because he isn't fully fit. I say this because there's times you actually see him walking, completely disinterested in the game when we don't have the ball, in time that will have to improve to move on another level.

As you say though AZ his passing tonight was very good, haven't seen the stats but he didn't lose it much at all and that's without having the best runners in and around him. Could've had a second goal but in his interview it was lovely to hear how he explained it and he seems a really nice guy on first impression (in sense of listening to him in an interview).

So a couple of negatives but overall an excellent performance by the lad, very close to my MotM (was just Clyne) and doing everything right so far to prove the concerns about him were without foundation.

Keep it up Big Ben!

Top class tonight.

Loved how he's linking up with Coutinho so well already, hopefully something similar will develop with Firmino as well.

Imagine him playing next to Danny.......

Imagine him playing next to Danny.......

Ings?

Ings?

I see what you did there....

Imagine him playing next to Danny.......

Those two will be a lot to handle for any team who has to defend them.

Torres and Suarez both scored on their Anfield debuts, their stats that followed speak for themselves. Hopefully Benteke follows suit.

Imagine him playing next to Danny.......

pushing him around on his wheel chair .

Impressed with what I saw.  Like the fact that those who were positive about his signing, haven't been in here harping on, just enjoying his performance.

Can't say the same for the negative nellies in some other players threads, like the last post I read in Lallana's thread.  Although saying that, it's not so much the opinion spouted, it's the 'look at how much of a negative arsehole I can  be' style of posting.  I know you don't have to have to post that way to get your point across, seen many a good post, with a bleak view, that wasn't posted that way, just seems some can't help themselves.

Sorry, rant over.

Really impressed by what I've seen. I never wanted him here - a case of 'once bitten, twice shy', what with largely poor striker signings (aside from Sturridge) from Rodgers and I didn't see what Benteke would offer, but its clear to see he can offer us an extra dimension to the game. For a tall guy, he can fairly shift and his height is just one strength out of many as opposed to the traditional Sam Allardyce type of sh*te, in which the player is just tall.

He did everything asked of him last night. Ran the channels, won aerial duels and took his goal well. With more game time he can only improve and with playmakers behind him (DLPM or AM) he will be a real handful.
I just like the versatility we now have in attack. Keep it up Ben!

Imagine him playing next to Danny.......

And imagine what Klopp could do with Benteke!

Impressed that he wins most of aerial challenges and the work he does keeping the ball and passing.

Keep it up!

In fact he was the only player who anticipated the cross for the goal. We have been missing strikers with the ability to anticipate and meet a pass for some time.

Thing that excites me most about Benteke is his willingness to run in behind defenders, ok he might not score as many in that situation as Torres or Suarez did BUT he provides more space for the likes of Coutinho and Firmino. As well as this he looks to have already forged a relationship with our young magician, all the apparent negatives he has seemed to turn around.

Obviously it is too soon to judge him completely but it seems our fears of him being immobile and a one trick pony are far fetched to say the least. He seems very capable on and off the ball to have an impact in the air and on the ground, if anything i am more excited about his impact as a player on our team then Firmino.

Lastly his strength and bullying behaviour on the ball is something that will again strike fear into the oppositions defences again, something we've lacked since the departure of Suarez, allowing our midfield players more of an influence when attacking. Furthermore his hold up play is bound to get us goals that we wouldn't have scored in previous seasons. Oh and the thought of him alongside Sturridge is a real exciting one.

All in all think Benteke could be the biggest signing for us this summer and hope he continues to live up to expectations.

He's a hard working monster and also highly talented, it's a gift that we got to sign this player, other teams around Europe will be thinking they should have signed him while he was so underrated.
That's not even my opinion from him playing for us, it's what I've been thinking will be from when we got him.

In fact he was the only player who anticipated the cross for the goal. We have been missing strikers with the ability to anticipate and meet a pass for some time.

Coutinho and Lovren both went for the ball too...

Coutinho and Lovren both went for the ball too...

Coutinho was a mile off and Lovren would have missed!