The last game Christian Benteke started for Liverpool in the Premier League was on January 2nd - an atrocious performance in a 2-0 loss to West Ham.
In all, the striker has only started four games under Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League. He has even dropped down the pecking order as an option for Europa League games.
His alienation from the starting XI is something which the Belgian fails to understand. In an interview with Sport/Voetbalmagazine - which really reads as an epitaph for his Anfield career - he explained that a number of his Liverpool teammates believed Klopp's arrival would be a positive for the 25-year-old.
Some teammates have said that I was lucky with the arrival of Klopp, because I certainly would play. When your coach says he wanted to take you to Dortmund and a little later you sit at the same club and he ignores you, it is hard to understand.
Klopp has introduced his trademark, high-energy pressing style to Liverpool. Benteke does not agree with those who say he doesn't fit into this model.
I find that weird. I don’t understand why people stay that. I can press, I can move. It’s not like we are playing the Barcelona way.
[Klopp] has told me to be more involved in the game. That seems to me one of my qualities: I like to combine, I like to get the ball. But maybe I don’t ask the ball in the right positions and maybe that’s why the team-mates don’t find me.
Despite not picking Benteke in his starting line-ups, Klopp, on a one-to-one level with the player, is still supportive.
I’ve taken his remarks into account and I was ready to change my style like he wanted it. I’d thought that Liverpool had bought because of my qualities. It’s ideal to stay yourself, to keep your identity, while you adapt to the style of the manager. And if that doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.
He still tells me that I’m a striker who can do everything: score goals; holding up the ball, play one-two’s, heading. If I have that many variations in my game, why don’t I play? But, he makes the choices and I have to respect them.
Since Klopp's arrival at Anfield, and his subsequent lack of playing time, Benteke sought out the advice of his fellow Belgian internationals.
Both Marouane Fellaini - much maligned at Man Utd - and Eden Hazard told him that once you fall out of favour with a manager, there is not much which can be done to ameliorate the situation.
What’s annoying me the most is that I would have never signed for Liverpool if I wasn’t the manager’s first choice. Everything was there to play a good season at a big club and it started well.
I am the first to admit that I haven’t shown enough my worth for a team like Liverpool. On the other hand, under Brendan Rodgers, I knew I would get the opportunity to show my qualities, to show that I was worth the money and that I deserved to wear the shirt of Liverpool. But now?
Since I went to England in 2012 I’ve never been on the bench for such a long period. It hurts, especially since I never was as fit as now. That’s why I try to grab my chance when I get five or ten minutes playing time. I don’t want people to blame me for a lack of professionalism.
Even my father, who initially was worried about my status, told me that I can’t do a lot about my situation. I’ve talked with Eden Hazard and Marouane Fellaini and they all answered the same: if a coach does not count on you, you can’t do a lot about it.
Translation via The Times
