So, this weekend Crystal Palace will meet Liverpool in the Premier League. Of course, Palace will be up against it as they face Jurgen Klopp’s in form team – but let’s have a little chat about christian benteke here.
The striker made the switch from Liverpool to crystal palaceduring the summer and you have to say that it was a move that suited both parties. I have often felt that Palace have lacked a quality striker for years now and it has certainly held them back. Of course, the club experienced an alarming slide down the table last season after a very strong start.
This season the club have made a decent start to the season – and this time I’m predicating they will be ok. The reason I say this is they now have that goalscorer at their disposal that they have been looking for over a number of seasons. Benteke has certainly adapted himself quickly with three goals already this season as well as an average rating of 7.51. Additional stats include 3.4 shots per game and 1.1 key passes in every game he plays in, showing his goalscoring and creative touch.
Even his spell at Liverpool wasn’t a disaster in which he scored nine goals in 29 league games, but it was clear he was never going to be Klopp’s main man. Nevertheless, Palace knew that they were getting an established Premier League goalscorer given his heroics for Aston Villa where he scored 42 goals in 89 games.
The fact remains that certain players suit certain clubs just like with managers and Benteke at Liverpool was just never going to work. Sometimes when this happens you wonder if a former player might want to prove a point to his former manager. There is no doubt that the player will be up for showing what he can do – but whatever happens in the game it’s hard to create an argument that The Reds were wrong to let him go – especially with the goals flowing for his old club this season.
Obviously, the transfer fee paid in the summer was quite large – but strikers tend to always cost the most money. What you can say though is that Benteke is still of a good age and if he can score 15-20 goals a season it will have certainly been money well spent. Nevertheless, the player may well feel that his time at Liverpool was wasted and that adds another dimension to this game.
