Jürgen Klopp has spoken to Christian Benteke about the striker’s faltering form at Liverpool and insisted the £32.5m signing still has to adapt to the demands of his new club and team-mates.
The Belgium international has scored five times since his summer move from Aston Villa and was dropped to the bench for Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Watford as Klopp opted for Roberto Firmino in his starting lineup. Having started the previous game against West Bromwich Albion Benteke was also overlooked when Martin Skrtel had to be withdrawn in the 41st minute at Vicarage Road and Klopp sent on Divock Origi to improve the Liverpool attack.
But the Liverpool manager said: “Christian didn’t lose his place in the squad. Sometimes you start, sometimes you don’t. We have a lot of options up front, unlike in other positions, so we have to make decisions. In the offensive line we have three options so we decided to make changes last weekend. Christian has trained well this week and we’ve had a good talk together. Everything is OK. We know what he has to do and he knows what he has to do.”
Klopp refused to divulge details of his conversation with Liverpool’s most expensive summer signing, whose injury-interrupted Anfield career so far has raised doubts over his suitability to the system favoured by the former Borussia Dortmund coach.
But, before Leicester City’s arrival on Merseyside on Boxing Day, the Liverpool manager again called for patience with a striker he once tried to bring to the Bundesliga. “We are still at the beginning here,” added Klopp.
“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 is completely clear. He knows what he has to do. He’s not saying ‘let’s wait and see’. He is working and he’s trying to be better. 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. 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. That’s what I said. If we could train more often then he will see that it’s easy. ’Go there, come here, go again’. 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 for us and hopefully you will see the results of that.”
