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Benteke - BOOOOOO the puns

Good player, but not suited to our team/game/manager at all.
At 3mill I'd take a punt. At 30mill, no thank you.
 
I'm just not sure 442 is a system we should be deliberately going back to. It worked fantastically in special circumstances with Suarez and Sturridge, but Suarez is a one-off.

And like you say, having an expensive striker just to shadow Sturridge is a waste of resources. The things we need to account for are that Sturridge is top class and needs to be in the team; he's injury prone so needs very effective cover; very effective cover is expensive so they need to be able to play in the same side when Sturridge is fit. I think that means you want a pacy striker/borderline wide forward who can play with Sturridge in a 3 with a more flamboyant 'winger' type, and then when Sturridge gets injured your replacement slots into his role and you bring Ings or Origi in to fill the gap with a minimum of fuss. Each of the forwards is sharing the burden of goals 3 ways so you're reducing the cost of Sturridge's injuries straight away.

Again, I agree.

Signing Ings as a "shadow" for Sturridge makes some sense because he is cheap - so less to lose and he'd not cone with an expectation of being a guaranteed starter - but unlike Lambert, Ings would probably have more drive to prove himself (as well as being more mobile).

So, like you said, it really is about identifying that quality forward who can play across the whole front line, can score, pacy with good movement, works hard.... we really should be putting as much resources into finding & securing that player as possible.
 
There is a long long list of strikers with superb records in Holland who didn't make it. Scoring 80 there doesn't make you a star. Kuyts record was just as good
No it wasn't.

Suarez also wasn't playing as striker for much of that. He moved more central when Huntelaar was sold.

There is a pretty long list of strikers that have played in Holland and made it. It includes Zlatan, Ronaldo, Romario, Van Basten, etc.
 
Again, I agree.

Signing Ings as a "shadow" for Sturridge makes some sense because he is cheap - so less to lose and he'd not cone with an expectation of being a guaranteed starter - but unlike Lambert, Ings would probably have more drive to prove himself (as well as being more mobile).

So, like you said, it really is about identifying that quality forward who can play across the whole front line, can score, pacy with good movement, works hard.... we really should be putting as much resources into finding & securing that player as possible.

I doubt Lambert lacked the drive to prove himself. It's just that IMHO he wasn't given sufficient opportunity to demonstrate it. Agree otherwise.
 
He's a massive confidence player, goes through big droughts when his confidence is down.

I'm not sure that's true at all ... maybe playing at a team, and with team-mates, that have been struggling with confidence & form most of the season is a more viable reason for any drought, hardly surprising then that once Sherwood came in, changed things around a bit and confidence within the team rose, that Benteke started scoring again and contributed to a 4-1-3 PL record since QPR in April to drag them well clear of the relegation battle, but they are also in the FAC final - which no-one was predicting when they were back in the 1/4s.

Benteke having contributed 9 goals in the last 10 matches (excluding his goal against us in the FAC) and has virtually a 0.50 scoring record for the season across 3 competitions (PL, FAC and 1 in 2 for Belgium). 97 goals in 233 matches for Villa across all comps.
 
I'm fine with Aubameyang too, but I think Dortmund would want to reduce major disruptions to the team in this summer, so that one probably is a non-starter. We could try but I think the answer will be pretty firm.
Cracking player, with his pace, height and power he looks a perfect fit for us .... in 2015 only one player (Dost - 14) has scored more goals then him (11) in the Bundesliga.
 
It hasn't been just this season that Benteke's form has slipped at times though. He's had at least one significant fallow period before. Jury's still out on us buying him AFAIC.
 
I'd try and sign Aubameyang.

Benteke is a very good player and I dont think fitting in will be an issue. Regarding that issue, how do we want to set up?
This season we've been all over the place and Rodgers have tried loads of different approaches.

30 mill for Benteke though. Thats very pricey.

Bacca has a release clause at about 22 mill I think. Now that would be a good signing.
 
I'd try and sign Aubameyang.

Benteke is a very good player and I dont think fitting in will be an issue. Regarding that issue, how do we want to set up?
This season we've been all over the place and Rodgers have tried loads of different approaches.

30 mill for Benteke though. Thats very pricey.

Bacca has a release clause at about 22 mill I think. Now that would be a good signing.


Bacca is 28. A big risk bringing in a 28 year old who has never played in England for that kind of money.
 
Bacca is 28. A big risk bringing in a 28 year old who has never played in England for that kind of money.

The big risk imho is the age and how many years he can keep up this level.
His game is easily suited to the Premier League but as you say there is always a chance that it wont work out.
But you can say that about any transfer. He would suit us very well and has that Suarez approach to games.
 
16-20m - the right money for the right profile (in essence ditching borini, lambert and ballo).

Anything more than that and it will be a huge gamble.
 
I think we need to be clear that we don't have a style at the moment. People talking about how x player need to add that he fits into how we played last year. We could revert to that, but we could also go another way now we're in this position.

Benteke's a very good player and we could do worse, but I'd prefer someone who fitted in with our play last year and that isn't Benteke.
Aubameyang and Lacazette on paper appear to be better suited.
 
I'm astonished at the faith some of you are showing in Sturridge's fitness and availability next season. If we signed Benteke and I had to stake money on who would score the most goals for us next season, him or Sturridge, my money is on the new boy.
 
Again I think this target man argument is misplaced. Benteke is in a similar mode (admittedly not as good but as I said, that's the market we're in now) as Shearer, van Nistelrooy, Drogba, Andy Cole...they would all have scored goals in a side containing Coutinho, Lallana, Ibe etc.
 
I'm astonished at the faith some of you are showing in Sturridge's fitness and availability next season. If we signed Benteke and I had to stake money on who would score the most goals for us next season, him or Sturridge, my money is on the new boy.

It's not faith, it's probability. The likelihood is that he'll be available for more than half our games. There has to be a plan for what to do with a £30m signing for the games the main man is fit for. We can't afford to just have that kind of asset idle or totally out of position etc.
 
I don't quite know what to make of him. He's an intriguing prospect, but £30m is terrifying.


LIVERPOOL are plotting a recruitment drive, spearheaded by the £30m capture of Christian Benteke, that they hope will enable them to make up ground at the top of the Premier League — and help persuade Raheem Sterling to sign a new contract. James Milner, Danny Ings and Fiorentina’s Brazilian goalkeeper, Neto, are other primary targets as Brendan Rodgers seeks proven talent to enhance his squad.

Rodgers’ priority is signing a striker. Liverpool have scored 50 fewer goals than they did when challenging for the title last season and lack of firepower, after the departure of Luis Suarez, is largely responsible for his side dropping out of the top four. With Daniel Sturridge not expected to return from hip surgery until October, and Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert scoring just three times in the competition between them over the season, the need for an established Premier League scorer is urgent.

Benteke fits that bill. Still just 24, the Belgian has 42 Premier League goals in 88 appearances, despite playing for a club who have battled relegation since he joined them. Villa, however, want to keep the player, who signed a four-year contract in 2013 and whose recent run of 13 goals in 13 matches for club and country suggests he is finally over a serious Achilles tendon injury, sustained last April.

Benteke is valued at £30m and, on Friday, Villa’s manager, Tim Sherwood, said: “I have no reason to think he is seeking employment elsewhere. I am convinced he wants to be at this club.”

Despite an offer worth up to £165,000 a week over four years to stay at Manchester City, Milner is attracted by the prospect of joining Liverpool on a free transfer. The player wants a regular starting place and to play in his favourite central midfield position.

Ings, who would cost around £6m in compensation, is set to choose Liverpool over Real Sociedad while Neto heads Liverpool’s list of goalkeeping targets, which also includes the young Australian Matthew Ryan. Neto, approaching 26, is an established keeper who has been in the Brazil squad and played at the 2012 London Olympics.

Retaining Sterling is also part of Liverpool’s plans. Despite provocative comments attributed to his agent, Aidy Ward, in a newspaper interview, the club remain willing to deal with Ward and relations between Sterling and Rodgers remain strong.
 
I don't really know what to make of this. This smacks of a Rodgers signing. Even if he stays, surely all the indications have been that he'd have less of a say (pretty much no say in fact) on transfers.

Please FSG, please: sack this tosser.

* I know I'm making pretty baseless assumptions on who's directing this move, but I'm in the mood for a rant.
 
Well, with all thats written so far it looks like Fallows and Edwards will leave.
That will surley be the end of that part of the committee.

But giving the full responsibility to Rodgers isnt an option either when it comes to transfers
 
Regardless of whether he's right for us or not, he's comfortably worth £25M in the market.
 
No it wasn't.

Suarez also wasn't playing as striker for much of that. He moved more central when Huntelaar was sold.

There is a pretty long list of strikers that have played in Holland and made it. It includes Zlatan, Ronaldo, Romario, Van Basten, etc.
So you have to back to players who played there 10, 20, 25 and 30 years ago to prove your point?
The number that don't make it massively outweight those that do
 
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