Christian Benteke

[frank the tank]

got slated by Wilmots apparently.....said he put in "half a performance"....... although he was subbed at half time!!!

[Shaggy]

I watched the game and he was utter, utter turd. Like I've said he's looked better for us so far than I thought he was, but he is capable of putting in some real stinkers. Last night he was proper ****.

[Alex]

Cant discount the fact he was maybe running at half pace because of the injury in the back of his mind and the UTD game on Saturday.

[Shaggy]

Cant discount the fact he was maybe running at half pace because of the injury in the back of his mind and the UTD game on Saturday.

Yeah I'm hoping his "performance" was injury related, although obviously we desperately need him fit and firing for Saturday.

[Exiled_red]

It sounds like an injury related thing, he probably shouldn't have played, this is why I hate internationals - playing players when not fully fit or not understanding how they need time to recover is how we got into the situation with Sturridge

[Chris]

got slated by Wilmots apparently.....said he put in "half a performance"....... although he was subbed at half time!!!

Perhaps that clown should start wondering why every Belgian player looks terrible under his management. He must be their Glen Roeder.

[BigChief]

Perhaps that clown should start wondering why every Belgian player looks terrible under his management. He must be their Glen Roeder.

Apart from the De Bruyne's freekick I thought him and Hazard were even worse. Getting a half fit, and still worrying about his injury, Benteke to run the channels and win all headers is a sign of a desperate manager who is well out of his league.

If he wanted a lone striker to do the donkey work then you get the fittest and most ready player on the pitch from the start, i.e. Origi.

Even the commentators were slating Wilmots rather than Benteke about not putting enough players around him as he was winning the headers he was expected to. Knocking them down to....nobody (see Hazard/De Bruyne being **** above).

[McDermotX]

Few reports of him drafting in a Belgian sports head-doctor to help him adjust to his move to Liverpool.

The Belgian forward has scored just one goal in four Premier League appearances since joining Liverpool from Aston Villa for £32.5million this summer.

To help adapt to life at a bigger club, Benteke has enlisted the help of renowned sports mental coach Michel Bruyninckx - a former colleague at Standard Liege - in order to understand how to deal with the pressures of life at Anfield.

"When he was a boy in Belgium, he changed regularly from one club to another, because he only had one profile — as a physically strong player," Bruyninckx told the Mirror.

"I tried to encourage him then to expand his mind to see that he must not accept those labels and that he could continuously change his skills, and the way he learned to think has been enormously important to his career.

"I hear people say he is not a Liverpool type of player, but I tell you that he can adapt to any club.

"This challenge is not new for him. For many years, people tried to convince Christian he was only a physical player but, through his mental power, he has changed all that."

Bruyninckx, who assisted numerous Belgian internationals with similar issues, remains confident that the 24-year-old can live up to his valuation under Brendan Rodgers despite his early struggles.

"When you watch him in the national team, you can see that, technically, he is skilled, he is creative, he is intelligent. I fully believe that, through Liverpool, he will go to a higher level again.

"Step by step, he has *understood that the modern game requires other things and his mental endurance and mental power has changed a lot," Bruyninckx added.

"When I spoke with him, when he gave me the call, I said, 'Listen, Christian, you have to work on it, and that will open your world. If you decide yourself, then you can go to anything.'

"One of his major points is that he has a broad mindset. He is open to learn every day of his life.

"We understand, more and more, that the capacity of the brain is remarkable and, once a player is aware how the game is played in the head, he can evolve continuously.

[Vermilion]

Aye the one that apparently helped him get started in football or summat.

[Fosterbloke]

Hats off to him actually, it shows he gets the magnitude of playing for Liverpool. I wish more players displayed such committment.

[kev776]

As he has scored only 1 in 4, can we hate him yet or is Dejan still the villain?

[fidget]

Dejan will always be a villain

[redmike65]

Perhaps that clown should start wondering why every Belgian player looks terrible under his management. He must be their Glen Roeder.

Indeed, when Origi came on his had exactly the same problem, no service, slow possession and general crapness. This Belgium side has no shortage of talent but Wilmotts is no better than Hodgson.

[Chazza]

[ame]https://twitter.com/HLNinEngeland/status/640908655878098944[/ame]

[tanner]

He's not mental anyway, just a little eccentric.