Manager wants to help striker improve at Liverpool
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed he has held one-on-one chats with Christian Benteke in order to help him spark into life at Anfield.
The Belgian international was signed by Brendan Rodgers over the summer from Aston Villa after they agreed to activate his release clause of £32million.
However since the move, he has failed to impress at Anfield and is struggling to adapt to their style of play.
Things have seemingly got harder for Benteke since Klopp took over due to his attacking and free-flowing style of football, but the German has admitted he’s sat down and spoke to the striker in the hope he can help him kick-start his career.
Benteke hasn’t scored a league goal since October now, and Klopp has admitted he’s had chats with him to try and help him settle into life in Merseyside.
Klopp Talks with Benteke
“Christian has trained well this week and we’ve had a good talk together,” Klopp said.
“We know what he has to do and he knows what he has to do.
“Everything is okay. He didn’t lose his place in the squad. Sometimes you start, sometimes you don’t. We have a lot of options so we have to make decisions.
“In the offensive line we have three options so we decided to make changes last week.
“Christian is completely clear. He knows. He’s not saying ‘let’s wait and see’. He is working and he’s trying to be better.”
When asked about what was said during the one-on-one meetings, Klopp refused to reveal the details.
Details of Chat Not Revealed
“I don’t like talking to you about things like this,” Klopp added.
“Maybe it’s my language, maybe it’s you looking for sensations. It always sounds completely different to what I meant!
“We are still at the beginning here. If you are the only striker at the club then you play all the time.
“Every striker will say ‘give me five games in a row and then you’ll have the striker you want’. That’s not possible here.
“We have to try things, we have to create things, we have to change things because the number of games is a big difference. Three games a week or one game a week is a big difference.
“Christian’s biggest strength is heading so everyone is waiting for crosses. But you have two high towers, centre-halves, in the box. You can’t always wait for that as that is only one situation in offence.
“We need to create more moments for all our offensive players. We need to push up from centre midfield more and get into the box to create more opportunities. We need more movements together.
“If we could train more often then Christian will see that it’s easy. ‘Go there, come here, go again’.
“We have dominance in a lot of situations with our full-backs pushing up. We just have to make better decisions around the box.
“For me and for Christian, it was a really good talk. Now we have made a few decisions and hopefully you will see the results of that.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
