In what has been a horrendous 12 months or so for Liverpool football club, fans would be quite happy about their club’s activity in the transfer market. The club has been quick and decisive in the window so far, which has seen the arrival of players like James Milner, Roberto Firmino , Nathaniel Clyne for the first team and a few fringe players to bolster the squad overall.
Yet, if there is a movement that might polarize the opinions of Liverpool fans across the globe, it has to be the clubs public courting of Aston Villa center forward Christian Benteke. The Belgian no 9 is not a bad player by any stretch of the imagination, but his signing will remind Liverpool fans of the much-maligned Andy Carroll- the most expensive English player in history, who simply failed to live up to his price tag and seemed every bit weighed down by the pressure and expectations that comes with playing for such a massive club.
Of course, Benteke is no Andy Carroll, in fact, he is a much better player. He is more in the mould of Drogba – unbelievably powerful and strong in the air, great turn of pace and has a wicked shot on him, but his penchant for being seemingly unstoppable on his night and not being bothered at the same time when things don’t go his way might be a cause for concern for the club’s supporters.
Playing for Liverpool is an entirely different proposition to playing for Villa where he was the main man and had everything served up to him, but if he wants to make it big at Liverpool, he has to accept more responsibility, be more of a team player and most importantly work on his movement which was either evidently lacking or not visible due to the style of play enforced by the midlands club.
On the other hand, what would his signing mean to the likes of Sinclair and other youth players who are on the cusp of breaking into the senior squad? Would Ings feel hard done by? Would Sturridge, once he gets fit, complement a powerhouse center forward as well as he did with Suarez?
Well, these questions, don’t seem to concern the some of the reds greatest ever strikers as they seem to back the club’s pursuit of the Belgian no 9. The legendary Robbie Fowler was upbeat about it when he said ‘It’s important we get a proven goal scorer and of the names being bandied about I’d go for Benteke. I think he’s excellent,’ Fowler said to the Liverpool Echo.
‘We didn’t have anyone who scored 10 Premier League goals last year and I can’t remember the last time that happened at Liverpool.’
‘With a Benteke type, you have someone who will stay up there and stretch defenders. If you have someone who stretches the defense and makes the pitch bigger there’s a lot more space for the likes of Firmino, Coutinho and Henderson to run into.
‘I can’t stress enough how important it is that we get a forward like that – someone to make the pitch big. It’s vital for us because it brings others into the game.’
Liverpool football club, no matter where they find themselves in, just have to have a world class striker in their ranks. They cannot go for a long period without one. It almost feels inevitable. Liverpool fan’s will be expecting history to repeat itself and if it does, they would hope, for once, it is not amidst chaos.