Christian Benteke will hold talks with Jürgen Klopp to establish whether the striker has a future at Liverpool. Benteke has endured a difficult first season and appears certain to be part of a summer cull but insists he may stay.
Benteke was signed from Aston Villa for £32.5m last July, when Brendan Rodgers was in charge at Liverpool, and has become an increasingly marginal figure. Under Klopp he has started only 14 matches and was regularly left out of the starting lineup for crucial fixtures, including the Europa League final defeat by Sevilla, when he came on in the 83rd minute after Divock Origi had been sent on in a search for goals.
The general consensus is Benteke does not suit Klopp’s high-energy, high-pressing style and the Belgian did himself no favours when he questioned the manager’s use of him following the 3-2 defeat at Southampton in March, at the end of which the pair were seen having a heated discussion on the pitch.
But in the bowels of St Jakob Park on Wednesday Benteke, who has been linked with West Ham, said: “I signed for five years, I didn’t sign for one year, and now I have to speak with the manager and see his plans for next season. It has been a tough [first season]. I knew Liverpool is a massive club with a lot of pressure and a lot of good players, and it has not been easy [to settle in]. But I keep going and never doubt myself. I’m now going to focus on the Euros and see what happens next season.”
Klopp has previously dismissed talk of Benteke leaving the club and in fairness to the 25-year-old, his goal return during a campaign in which he not only had to adjust to new surroundings and a change of manager but also had his progress disrupted by thigh, hamstring and knee injuries, was encouraging. He scored 10 times in 42 appearances, often after coming off the bench and with his goals proving crucial. Seven of Benteke’s goals directly contributed to Liverpool gaining a favourable result.
“It was not my best season, I know that, but the goals I scored [did not make it] 5-0 or 4-0,” he said. “It’s not that I’m happy with that – it could be more but I want to look forward.”
Should Benteke stay he accepts he is likely to remain a back-up option for Klopp and could find himself the fifth choice for the lone striker role in the manager’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, behind Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi, Danny Ings and Roberto Firmino. Asked how he has coped with a drop in rank having been an automatic starter at Villa, he said: “At the beginning it was not easy, it was really hard to accept that but I have learned to respect the choice of the manager. I will now try to speak with him and see what his plans are.
“I’m not the only who is going to do that, a lot of players are going to want to know what will happen next season.”
Liverpool’s defeat by Sevilla not only ended their hopes of winning a first trophy in four years, and qualifying for the Champions League, but also meant that for a number of players their time at the club finished on a negative note as Klopp looks to reshape his squad for his first full season in charge.
That would have been the case regardless of the result at St Jakob Park but the manner in which Liverpool collapsed in the second half, conceding three times in 24 minutes having led at half-time through Daniel Sturridge’s sumptuous left-foot strike, confirmed the feeling there will be sweeping changes at Anfield. Klopp hinted as much when he spoke after Wednesday’s final of his players losing “faith in our style of play”. Those who have failed to, or cannot, buy into the German’s demanding doctrine may as well start packing their bags.
Defeat by Sevilla combined with an eighth-place finish in the Premier League means Liverpool will be without European football next season. That is likely to not only bring changes to the squad but also a reduction in its size given the reduced number of fixtures the club will contest. They played 63 matches during the 2015-16 campaign, with 13 of those coming in the Europa League.
Martin Skrtel, Lucas Leiva and Joe Allen are among those expected to leave in the summer, with two players already signed - the Serbian midfielder Marko Grujic and the Cameroon defender Joël Matip. Liverpool have also been linked with the Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Mario Götze, whom Klopp worked with at Borussia Dortmund, and the 22-year-old Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius. Talks regarding the player have reportedly been held between Liverpool and what is another of Klopp’s former clubs.
One player who appears certain to be at Liverpool next season is Daniel Sturridge. The striker endured a difficult, injury-disrupted season but still scored 13 goals in 26 appearances, the last of which appeared to put Liverpool well on course for triumph in Basel.
“You want to be a winner, you want to be a champion and we didn’t do what we had to do,” Sturridge said. “We now have to pick ourselves up from this and go into pre-season with the mentality to work hard next season.”
