It's ridiculous to say Benteke is pile of crap, he simply doesn't fit our system. If we played to his strengths he'd bang the goals in.

Just seen some tweets that Emre Can may be in contention for Thursday.

The Anfield Wrap:

Leicester win it with 77 points, a total Liverpool topped in 2002 (80-2nd), 2006 (82-3rd), 2009 (86-2nd) and 2014 (84-2nd).

Bastards (well done).

As if Steven Gerrard is trending on twitter 😑

It's the Express so don't know how true it is, but...

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/footb...emi-Final-News

We could see him on Thursday.


Looks like someone else needs a drug test!

If he was a better player then he would adapt to our system of play.


Also well done Leicester , what a magical time for the fans and the club

His lack of movement is often painful to watch.

Not necessarily. His playing style just isn't compatible with the way we play. Doesn't make him a poor player.

Well as a Liverpool fan and the fact we paid 32M for him I personally think he is crap and a big let down to the club.

Yet another big money flop that will go down in polls for years to come.

Westham suit his playing style, he would be very effective in their team.

I'm not denying that he's failed and hasn't lived up to his price tag. But that doesn't mean he himself is a poor player, he has just been poor. His goalscoring record for Aston Villa doesn't just go away because he hasn't been great for us. I don't think it's a case of him just being made to look good because he was in a poor team, either.

He's just not compatible with the way we play, he's not crap.

Well done Leicester City on winning the title. I wonder how much longer we have to wait until we win another league title

Next year is our year 😜

I hope Klopp can at least get us a top 3 finish.

It would be nice to get excited about us again being up there with the best teams.

We never learn do we. This is like Andy Carroll all over again when we paid all that money for someone who just did not suit our style of play, and now we have done it again with Benteke. Im sure before the start of the season people were warning us not to buy him as he would not fit our style of play under Brendan Rodgers, but we still bought him and they were right as he only scores goals if you put the ball in the box or crosses from the wings

On a serious note I can't help feeling that next year will be extremely difficult for us even with Klopp at the helm. Chelsea, City and possibly United will have world class managers with money to burn. Tottenham will also be strong. I know Leicester have shown you don't need money to win league titles but more often than not you do. And it's not like Liverpool haven't invested in the squad, it has just been very poor spending bar a few exceptions. But with Klopp at the helm, and hopefully with signings of his choosing I will remain confident. I honestly don't know what to expect next season from all teams. Will be more clear once signings are made I guess.

I keep reading the gossip columns and we are linked to so many players. So what players do we need and who do you think we should buy

It doesn't always work like that.

We're expecting him to be a player that he's never shown any evidence of being.

He's not mobile, he doesn't offer great movement, and he isn't going to press.

What he does offer is strength, ability to hold up the ball, and he knows where the goal is.

He'd flourish in a team that plays to his strengths.

The committee/club never learn.

Carroll, Balotelli, Benteke...

Ings, Origi, Sturridge... these are the sorts of strikers that work in the way we play.

I would never say as a previous poster has Benteke is crap but I do think the 'he does not fit our system' line is used by many of his apologists to give him more slack than he deserves. The number of times he has been through one on one and not scored is just painful to watch - it is reasonable I believe to expect that as a 32m striker just sometimes he will finish those kind of chances but he never does. These days if he is through one on one I have almost no expectation that he will score a goal. His strength is meant to be in the air and yet frequently I have seen him out jumped and out muscled by defenders. I see him not in the box when that is where we need him to be and sometimes I feel he is not even trying his best or at least his body language gives that impression.

All in all of the strikers on the books I definitely want him sold in the summer - hopefully we will get a better option in for a lower price. Having said that I fully expect him to go elsewhere and do well as he has not become a bad player over night and did well at AV. Even if this happens tho I would not conclude that we should not have sold him - it is not working for him at LFC and he should be sold. Simple

Again, nobody is saying he hasn't failed, or he has lived up to his price tag. Of course it's disappointing, nobody's denying that, and yes his failures to score one-on-ones is frustrating. But I don't think his price tag should be used to judge him as a player, or to judge him on his abilities.

I can't speak for the other "apologists", but this "Benteke apologists" doesn't use such a term to give a player a get out of jail free card, to excuse poor performances or whatever else you want to use. The fact is he doesn't fit our system, that's quite obvious I think, he's not the type of striker that would fit in at Liverpool, like Andy Carroll and Balotelli before him. Yes his one-on-ones might not be great but all players can have weaknesses. Accepting that the way he plays isn't compatible with our system, and that we aren't willing to play to his strengths, isn't giving him unnecessary slack, it's simply believing that he IS a good player, or a good striker, his record proves that. Him not living up to his price tag doesn't mean he's a poor player, it means he hasn't lived up to his price tag.

Guys, Benteke will be as good as Lewandowski in time...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...-a6850691.html

We were always hoping he'd show some skills he didn't show at Villa. They were a team who always played on the counter attack and got plenty of balls into the box. When you play for a top team who regularly dominate possession your movement needs to be excellent as you're often operating with very little space and time on the ball.

I'll never forget his goal against United though. I know we lost, but that was a glimpse of his talent.

Benteke and Balotelli both need getting shot of off the payroll, and probably Sturridge as well since Klopp's made it abundantly clear that he doesn't fancy him one bit.

Liverpool need to spend massively in the summer, but I doubt it will happen given we have Ayre doing the negotiating. The squad is paper thin, the youngsters aren't good enough as shown against Swansea, and Klopp's failure to get anyone in last January has massively come back to bite him, and could end up with the club not being in European competition at all next season.

I wouldn't say he is crap, No but here, He wanted to prove he wasn't quite as one dimensional by coming to us and could play in another system, It hasn't worked out, He still has a lot to offer in the right type of team.

If someone had said pre-season a team starting with L would win the PL this year, we'd have got VERY excited. Well done Leicester! The best thing to happen to football in this country on the pitch since 1966 and a reality check for the statisticians and financiers who think there is only one way to succeed in the modern era.

For all the criticism of Ayre, what exactly has he done wrong?

His so called failings can be laid at the door of the entire transfer committee.

As an example, what exactly does Michael Gordon do? He essentially is a yes man for FSG..

Fallows and Hunter came in with big reputations, and for me, I don't see how a head of a recruitment and a chief scout are any different.

Michael Edwards is head of performance and technical analysis. Well my analysis is that he adds nothing to the transfer committee if he can't work out that Balotelli and Benteke don't fit our style.

Benteke has played around 25 games, and I'd be surprised if Balotelli played that many. It's too soon to write them off.

Fans wrote off Allen, Lucas and Firmino, but they've been key to the way we play at times.

I would be okay with those two leaving, however, if they stay, I won't be too upset.

As for the youngsters, you're writing them off after one defeat to Swansea? Presumably, they were fine when they were beating Stoke and Bournemouth?


Sadly, it hasn't yet worked out, but I think that there are subtle things he's doing that show glimpses of at least trying.

You're a perfectly balanced poster, but sadly this thread has been beset by negativity.

For me this is an exciting time. We have in Jurgen Klopp a manager capable of building a legacy.

He's already made two decent looking signings in Grujic and Matip, and the academy signing of Diego Lattie looks good too, with the academy now prioritising quality over quantity.

Alex Inglethorpe looks like he's building a core of players that should eventually progress.

Too often we've seen mercurial talent end up on loan forever, and then just disappear.

It's hard not to feel disheartened after a defeat to Swansea, especially the manner of the defeat, however, clearly, Klopp prioritised the Europa League game.

I am not that worried about the future under him..