Christian Benteke

[Jaymo]

Bet he never scores a better one

As long as he is scoring I couldn't care less if they went in off his arse

[Fosterbloke]

Bet he never scores a better one

His season starts now.

[BobTheCharmer]

His season starts now.

A little unfair, the rest of the team starts next weekend.

[frank the tank]

He oozed class on loan for us, a really slick, skilled speed merchant. Ludicrous that we didn't sign him, signing Diouf instead was barking mad.

We were a cunts hair away from being a top team and actually winning the league. Houllier had a defense that was tighter than a nuns snatch and all we needed were goals, pace and a bit of skill up front..... we could have had Anelka and Duff but instead Houllier bought Cheyrou, Diao and Diouf.

For me, houlliers 4-4-2 formation with Duff on the left, Anelka and Owen up front and maybe someone like Murphy on the right would have been a very good team...

------------------------------------DUDEK------------------------------------

BABBEL-----------HENCHOZ------------------HYYPIA----------CARRAGHER

MURPHY---------GERRARD------------------HAMMAN---------------DUFF

--------------------ANELKA-------------------OWEN------------------------

would have been a fabulous starting 11 and we would have had the likes of Riise, Heskey, Baros, Berger on the bench.....




Getting back to Benteke..... my feelings on his signing are this:

1. He's no Suarez (obviously) but he's definately not a new Andy Carroll / Emile Heskey either. He will score goals and although it won't be tiki-taka supreme, there will be games where we think afterwards "thank fock for Benteke".

2. The fee doesn't matter so much with Benteke as he is young enough and has a good enough reputation to get a big proportion (maybe £20m) of the fee back if he goes tits up.

3. I wonder if everyone was fit and available and in reasonable form, then where would Benteke fit in? This isn't a bad thing though because having Benteke in the squad will push Sturridge to do better so that isnt a bad thing.

4. I think Origi might end up regretting either (a) moving to Liverpool or (b) at least not pushing to get here last Jan. Because he would have got game time when Sturridge broke down again last season. Now he might not get any game time and put his place in the belgium squad in doubt. Alternatively, maybe they will form a deadly partnership and keep sturridge out (unlikely in my opinion but you never know).

5. At least we have him in place right now - in time to join the squad before the season starts and we are not scratching around on deadline day trying to get Villa to accept a 2-year balotelli loan as part of the deal. Because if they was the case, then the guy is moving house in september, getting used to the place when we have important games to play etc. At least now he is in place from day one of the season and he can hopefully hit the new season running. Neil Atkinson from the anfield wrap said something similar last night when he mentioned this - that Man United fans could regret not buying benteke for 32.5m in a months time because they could still be looking for a striker at the end of august and that is when a team makes a compromise then.

6. I think Rodgers has no excuses now to play Lallana as part of a front 3, or play 3 at the back. This is truly his squad - he has loads of options so we should really be starting to play with the tactics he wants. There shouldnt be any requirements to play 3 at the back or any ****e like Emre Can at centre back because this is his squad of players and guess what, he has genuine competition for places now.

Looking at our fixtures, the fact that we have all of our difficult away games before christmas at first send a slight shiver down my spine - my initial thought was something along the lines of "well that is brendan gone by christmas.........and a new manager (klopp?) would look brilliant because he would have an easy first 6 months in the job. However, on further thought, it may be a blessing in disguise. Hopefully, the manager can set up the team for these away games properly and if he gets that right early on in the season, then he can just revert to that formation / tactical approach for each away game. So we would effectively have an away team / tactics and a home team / tactics. Because all of our away games are difficult, then there is no real need to alter the away tactics or the "big game" tactics until January. I would like to see a team like:

------------------------------------MIGNOLET------------------------------------

CLYNE--------------SKRTEL-----------------------SAKHO--------------MORENO

-------------------------------------LUCAS----------------------------------------

----------------HENDERSON---------------------MILNER-------------------------

IBE---------------------------------------------------------------------COUTINHO

----------------------------------BENTEKE-----------------------------------------

for away games for the first half of the season.

With a team like:

------------------------------------MIGNOLET------------------------------------

CLYNE--------------SKRTEL-----------------------SAKHO--------------MORENO


---------HENDERSON-------------MILNER--------COUTINHO--------------------


-------------IBE---------------BENTEKE---------FIRMINO------------------------

for home games. Obviously personnel will sometimes change depending on who is 100% fit but that extra man in midfield should really help against the better teams and we should be in a position where we can still create some chances. I think we have the players now as well to take those chances and turn some losses into draws.....turn some draws into wins....

[BigChief]

The point about Origi is irony at its best. Origi displaces Benteke in the national team to be displaced at club level. I bet he never saw that coming.

[Lecter]

With a team like:

------------------------------------MIGNOLET------------------------------------

CLYNE--------------SKRTEL-----------------------SAKHO--------------MORENO


---------HENDERSON-------------MILNER--------COUTINHO--------------------


-------------IBE---------------BENTEKE---------FIRMINO------------------------

for home games. Obviously personnel will sometimes change depending on who is 100% fit but that extra man in midfield should really help against the better teams and we should be in a position where we can still create some chances. I think we have the players now as well to take those chances and turn some losses into draws.....turn some draws into wins....

We'd get our arses handed to us with a midfield like that

[frank the tank]

We'd get our arses handed to us with a midfield like that

against Bournemouth, West Ham, Norwich, WBA and Villa at home???? Don't think so........

[Lecter]

against Bournemouth, West Ham, Norwich, WBA and Villa at home???? Don't think so........

That midfield is physically weak

For all the energy it might possess I'm not convinced it would win you possession and scrap and battle like you often have to in those games

For all the work done in the transfer market we havent really addressed the midfied in terms pf physicality and winning / dominating possession

I worry enough about our midfield even before we contemplate omitting somebody like Lucas

The midfield you have picked would be way too open

[SB]

I don't see Milner or Henderson as weak.

[Chris]

Henderson and Milner "physically weak"

Perhaps you worded it wrong and meant they arent Mascherano types.

[Lecter]

I don't see Milner or Henderson as weak.

They aint that physical

[SB]

Henderson and Milner "physically weak"

Perhaps you worded it wrong and meant they arent Mascherano types.

They aint that physical

If your smart enough do you really need to be that physical? Maybe in some matches but smarts can win out at times too.

[Lecter]

Henderson and Milner "physically weak"

Perhaps you worded it wrong and meant they arent Mascherano types.

No I meant that they wont bully players

Maybe physically weak was the wrong thing to say

A midfield of Lucas, Henderson, Milner - I can understand playing

Throw in Coutinho instead of Lucas and you are definitely dropping off the amount of possession you can win

Last year we were bullied playing Henderson, Allen and Lucas / Gerrard so what makes people think that adding in Milner (for Lucas / Gerrard) and replacing Allen with Coutinho is going to improve us defensively / physically???

[Lecter]

If your smart enough do you really need to be that physical? Maybe in some matches but smarts can win out at times too.

It worked well last year with Joe Allen didnt it

[Alex]

I have missed your relentless negativity Lec

I dont see how comparing Allen to Milner helps things? They seem like totally different players (Because they are) and Milner has never struck me as being lightweight in Midfield.