Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney doesn't seem overly enthused by the arrival of former Liverpool and Burnleyl striker Christian Benteke.
The big Belgian arrived at Selhurst Park for £27m last weekend, but the Eagles' defender isn't convinced Benteke will make much of an impact unless Palace improve their play across the board.
The London club are yet to open their goalscoring account this season, not to mention win a game, but the big centre back from Douglas told reporters that Benteke won't be able to change that without sufficient support from his new teammates:
We’re not signing Messi. He’s a good player but he’s not a player who is going to get the ball and make things happen.
We've got to work on the midfield players, wide players, defenders, full-backs and have better service and a better way about us.
He brings a presence, he's a handful, but Connor Wickham is as well. It's time we stop talking about things and go and win games.
Now, with the greatest respect to Connor Wickham, he's never scored 19 goals in a Premier League season, although it seems likely Delaney is simply attempting to fire up Benteke's potential competitor with such comments.
Delaney has never been afraid to speak out, and the 35-year-old is adamant that up front is not where the problem lies for his side:
We have to get some ammunition for him, get some crosses in the box, give him supply. You can say we're not scoring goals, but we're not creating enough chances and that's coming back to the midfielders and defenders, it's up to us to get better service.
If we were missing a whole host of chances, you just want finishers, but I don't remember [Michel] Vorm really doing anything if I'm honest with you. It's not the centre-forward's fault, it's a team game.
[Evening Standard]
