Christian Benteke: The Man That Brought Joy to Thousands of Palace Fans

Crystal Palace smashed their record transfer fee for the second time this transfer window with the addition of Christian Benteke, a man who saw his career stagnate somewhat at Liverpool but also a man who will be anxious to rediscover the kind of form at Palace that earned him the Liverpool move in the first place. He’s also an established international with 26 caps for a Belgian team which was widely considered to be one of the most exciting and promising young international sides in recent years. Back in club football, his arrival has provided a welcome boost to Palace and while most fans are in agreement that Christian is an excellent signing for the club, what exactly can he bring to the side?

First and foremost, Christian’s signing has provided us fans with a welcome reminder that this still is an ambitious football club, it reminds us that it is as clear to the management and board that improvements needed to be made as it is to those of us sat in the cheap seats. The FA cup run last season acted as a wonderful distraction to what was an otherwise dismal run of results post-December and arguably kept Alan Pardew in a job after our form didn’t so much taper away as it did fall off a cliff.

All is not forgotten and our shaky start to the season has done nothing to ease the fears that this season could end up being at best one to forget and at worst one which could see us fall back into the championship – Newcastle has been the latest in a long line of sides to demonstrate that no club is too big. The fact that a talismanic forward hadn’t been brought in, especially after Gayle’s departure, was a reason for concern going into the season and our failure to score a goal in the first two games has only heightened those concerns. Christian Benteke allays those fears, he is the serious signing in the attacking department that we have been crying out for and fair play to the club, they’ve delivered.

At 25 he’s at a great age because while he still has the bulk of his career ahead of him he also brings with him significant experience - he’s featured in over 175 competitive games since his professional debut for Standard Liege back in 2009. By all available measures it looks as if he not only provides stiff competition to Connor Wickham and Fraizer Campbell but also represents a tangible improvement on both. Although he played as nothing more than a bit part player for Liverpool last season, an out of sorts, low on confidence Christian Benteke still outperformed Connor Wickham by a fair margin.

While it was too Connor nearly three games to score a goal on average (265.4 minutes) last season it took Benteke less than two, netting every 168.9 minute. His first season with Aston Villa was even more impressive for Christian, notching a goal every 149 minutes however it’s not just his goalscoring rate which is an improvement. His statistics for aerial duels won per game is far superior to those of Connor, nearly triple in fact, and that will almost certainly translate to more effective retention of the ball when it is slung hopefully forward – we’ve all seen the ball bounce off our strikers more times than any of us care to remember.

His time at Liverpool was considered by many a complete failure, he was Christian Benteke ‘the flop’, the man that had seen them part with 30 million poorly spent English pounds. While it’s true that he didn’t have the same devastating effects on defences at Liverpool as he enjoyed at Villa he also didn’t enjoy the same type of service or the unwavering support of the manager that he enjoyed at Villa either. I’ve spoken to some Liverpool fans and while this may not be the opinion of all Liverpool fans, the message I got was this: Christian Benteke was a player who simply didn’t suit the system and it was a combination of both Benteke’s and the management’s inability to adapt to one another.

From the outside looking in this appears to be a very similar case to that of Andy Carroll. Carroll did well at Newcastle and he has done well at West Ham subsequently but at Liverpool he struggled. The reason? Newcastle were willing to put early balls into the box for him to attack, West Ham were willing to mix it up and do the same at times. Liverpool under Klopp and Rodgers just weren’t willing to play the kind of football with which players like Carroll and Benteke thrive. New managers and new systems bring about player casualties for those who no longer fit into those plans and that has been to our benefit this time around.

Benteke’s Liverpool experience should be as much a lesson for us as it is a lesson for the man himself. Damien Delaney put it brilliantly when he said that Christian “is not Lionel Messi”, we shouldn’t expect him to come into the team, go on long mazy runs and score goals for fun. If, and only if, we can provide the kind of service on which he thrives he will stick them in the back of the net and push us on to another level. That however is a problem for another day because right now we should be rejoicing in the fact that for the first time in years we’ve got a proper striker, a ’20 goal a season’ man. Boy does it feel good.