Liverpool

Brendan Rodgers: 'Christian Benteke will only get better'

By Jack Prescott, Rugby Editor | 24 July 2015

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers claims that new signing Christian Benteke will only improve as a player during his time at the club.

Brendan Rodgers has backed Christian Benteke to become a better player at Liverpool.

The Belgian striker joined the Reds from Aston Villa earlier this week for a reported fee of £32.5m.

Rodgers believes that the 24-year-old already has plenty to offer the Merseysiders and will only improve during his time at Anfield.

"There's a number of qualities that he has and he will only improve in his time at the club," he told Liverpool's official website. "I think first and foremost his goals, if you look at his goals record since the time that he's been in the Premier League he's up there with the best in terms of numbers. So that was very important for us.

"Obviously I've heard and I've seen stuff about the style - 'he won't fit the style of how we play' - I think he'll only complement it and help us. He's a big guy but he's got the attributes that I like in terms of pace and movement and he gets goals, he gets all types of goals.

"He's great in the air, strong, he can hold the game up, he can play on the counter-attack, he can play whenever the team is deep because he can hold the ball up with his physical strength. As I said, he's a boy that still is improving in his game so I don't think there's any doubt he'll fit our tactical idea of the game and he can be a huge player for us."

Liverpool finished their pre-season tour of Australia and the Far East on Friday with a 1-1 draw against a Malaysia XI.