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Benteke - BOOOOOO the puns

mxtravs

6CM Follower
Member
Seems like we might make a play for Benteke. Was wondering what people thought as to how he would fit in at Liverpool.

Seems like there aren't a lot of quality strikers available this summer. My first choice would be lacazette, but I dont think we have a chance in hell. I would also consider Aubemeyang but I dont know if he would be lethal enoughl in front of goal - probably a bit more suited to our style of play though.

I think Benteke might be the best we can get. He's got a lot of positives going for him. He's young, scores loads of goals, can lead the line and bully defenders, scores with his head (which we are shit at), and is mobile and strong enough to pressure high up the pitch.

But unfortunately I think he isn't the type of player that can stretch defenses like Sturridge or Suarez. High pressure, swift counter attack and pacey strikers led to our success. I do think Benteke and Sturridge could wreak havoc on defenses. Overall, I think there are others that would be better, but for 25-28 million I would be happy with him. We really need someone lethal up top and he might be the best available option that would be willing to come.
 
I think this would be a mistake.

A very expensive one.
 
It's a fair point as to what our style of play really is. I'm not sure we have a very coherent one.

Anyway, any style of play we might have doesn't really seems ideal for Benteke if he's going to play with Sturridge, as he hopefully would do. If we were going for a target man, he'd be fine, depending on price. But I don't think Sturridge fits that kind of system.

IMO we should go for a proper 433 with 3 good goalscoring attackers up front, not a striker and two wingers. If we've got Sturridge, Ings, Origi and Ibe who can all operate in that system reasonably well, I'd say that leaves us needing another pacy striker and a more skillful Depay-like player.

Aubameyang or Lacazette would be ideal for the striker role. Possibly Son at Leverkusen, too.
 
He's scored more than a goal every other game in England, has two good feet and he's good in the air. He's doesn't miss many games through injury. I'd say he's better than our other realistic targets and apart from Sturridge he is miles better than the other useless fuckers we have in that department. He'd help Origi settle and I think he could form a decent partnership with Sturridge (when he's fit!) and give the walking popadom a kick up the arse when he isn't.
 
Expand please dreamy.
He's a massive confidence player, goes through big droughts when his confidence is down. We need a cocky arrogant front man who thrives on the pressure of playing for Liverpool like Suarez did and Torres before him. I remember falling in love with Suarez when he dicked 3 Utd defenders to hand Kuyt a tap in on the way to hat trick and I remember Torres blasting past the Chelsea defence to score at Anfield in one of his first games. Both times I thought, fuck ya we finally have a striker who is confident enough to say fuck you to the most intimidating teams in the biggest games.
Aside from that I don't think Bentekers is mobile enough for our style of football at all. He's a big target man up top and we got rid of Carroll for possessing exactly that quality.
If we get him he'll be a massive whooping flop.
 
But we're not going to be in the market for a Suarez or a Torres this summer. We either just bandy about names of European strikers or we discuss the merits of realistic targets. The comparison with Carroll is also misplaced, he's far better and more mobile than that.
 
Who was Suarez before we got him? Who was Remy before he came to England. Who was Coutinho? You don't have to be a star you just have to have that star quality and suit our style.
You don't have to sign a 30m striker.
Of course he's better than Carroll but he still is primarily a big target man who loves the long ball. It's not us
 
He's scored more than a goal every other game in England, has two good feet and he's good in the air. He's doesn't miss many games through injury. I'd say he's better than our other realistic targets and apart from Sturridge he is miles better than the other useless fuckers we have in that department. He'd help Origi settle and I think he could form a decent partnership with Sturridge (when he's fit!) and give the walking popadom a kick up the arse when he isn't.

We're not set up with players good at putting crosses in to the box - all our wide attackers cut inside and we use full backs for width - and none are great at crossing.

How's he going to fit in with Sturridge - that will be as much about his ability to create space for Sturridge to exploit, than anything else.

I'm not sure how fast he is or what his movement is like - but if he's not fast, intelligent and hard working - it's a problem.

To me this is us looking at a striker's record for another club, playing differently to us and expecting to replicate that record under different conditions.

That's usually a recipe for disaster.
 
Suarez had already scored 80 odd goals in 110 games for Ajax when he joined us. He was a world class striker when he came in...we're not going to bring a world class striker in this time. And as for Benteke not being 'us'...what has 'us' brought this season? The target men can only play in long ball teams thing is a myth. Drogba being an example.
 
To me this is us looking at a striker's record for another club, playing differently to us and expecting to replicate that record under different conditions.

That's usually a recipe for disaster.

I disagree. I think 'does he score goals' is a pretty good indicator when scouting the market for a striker. Good strikers will score in any team under any system. For what it's worth Benteke has already proved that at Villa.
 
I disagree. I think 'does he score goals' is a pretty good indicator when scouting the market for a striker. Good strikers will score in any team under any system. For what it's worth Benteke has already proved that at Villa.

Mario Baloteli's goal scoring record :
Inter : 20 in 59 games
Man City : 20 in 54 games
A C Milan : 26 in 43 games

You put the wrong player in the wrong system - it doesn't work.
 
You seem to be saying that just because we can't get a world class player in then we should settle for a target man. It doesn't follow. We can still get a lesser more mobile and tricky forward who'll tend to gel better with our other players. I named two realistic ones as well as Lacazette.
 
Also - it's precisely because we won't use Benteke as a target man that I'm unsure whether it'll work.

Sturridge will lead the line- secondary striker or attacker will be expected to be mobile and capable of drifting out wide.

Every time I've seen Benteke, he's been the central focal point - I dunno, maybe he'd work in a 2 man forward line, but to me his range is too limited - unless him and Sturridge are fighting for the same spot- which is an awful lot of cash for a potential squad player.
 
You seem to be saying that just because we can't get a world class player in then we should settle for a target man. It doesn't follow. We can still get a lesser more mobile and tricky forward who'll tend to gel better with our other players. I named two realistic ones as well as Lacazette.

I'm with you on this Peter - if we're going to splash £35m on a striker - I wouldn't do it on Benteke.
 
Also - it's precisely because we won't use Benteke as a target man that I'm unsure whether it'll work.

Sturridge will lead the line- secondary striker or attacker will be expected to be mobile and capable of drifting out wide.

Every time I've seen Benteke, he's been the central focal point - I dunno, maybe he'd work in a 2 man forward line, but to me his range is too limited - unless him and Sturridge are fighting for the same spot- which is an awful lot of cash for a potential squad player.


I'm just not sure 442 is a system we should be deliberately going back to. It worked fantastically in special circumstances with Suarez and Sturridge, but Suarez is a one-off.

And like you say, having an expensive striker just to shadow Sturridge is a waste of resources. The things we need to account for are that Sturridge is top class and needs to be in the team; he's injury prone so needs very effective cover; very effective cover is expensive so they need to be able to play in the same side when Sturridge is fit. I think that means you want a pacy striker/borderline wide forward who can play with Sturridge in a 3 with a more flamboyant 'winger' type, and then when Sturridge gets injured your replacement slots into his role and you bring Ings or Origi in to fill the gap with a minimum of fuss. Each of the forwards is sharing the burden of goals 3 ways so you're reducing the cost of Sturridge's injuries straight away.
 
Suarez had already scored 80 odd goals in 110 games for Ajax when he joined us. He was a world class striker when he came in...we're not going to bring a world class striker in this time. And as for Benteke not being 'us'...what has 'us' brought this season? The target men can only play in long ball teams thing is a myth. Drogba being an example.
There is a long long list of strikers with superb records in Holland who didn't make it. Scoring 80 there doesn't make you a star. Kuyts record was just as good
 
Suarez had already scored 80 odd goals in 110 games for Ajax when he joined us. He was a world class striker when he came in...we're not going to bring a world class striker in this time. And as for Benteke not being 'us'...what has 'us' brought this season? The target men can only play in long ball teams thing is a myth. Drogba being an example.
Drogba was 5 times the player Benteke is.
 
If we take the 2 years' worth of 70K/week saved from the contract offered to Sterling and add it to the contract we offer to the new strikers, I think the list of realistic striker targets will automagically increase.
 
Also, obligatory "sign Vietto" post - his style fits us like a glove though I understand the concerns about his lack of size and fear of him being a one-season wonder. It looks like he may be heading to Atletico Madrid though, so this one's probably just wishful thinking.

I'm fine with Aubameyang too, but I think Dortmund would want to reduce major disruptions to the team in this summer, so that one probably is a non-starter. We could try but I think the answer will be pretty firm.
 
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