Jurgen Klopp looking for Christian Benteke to strike more than once
When Divock Origi went down with a hamstring problem after 36 minutes at Anfield, Benteke — the £32.5m signing from Aston Villa in the summer — was summoned from the bench.
Origi had poked and harassed Leicester throughout the first-half, he had linked up well with Emre Can and Philippe Coutinho and, on the whole, looked the man of the moment.
The same cannot be said of Benteke of late. Just five goals this season meant Jurgen Klopp had dropped him for the woeful 3-0 Watford loss and this encounter.
However, with no time to warm up following Origi’s injury, Benteke thrashed his tracksuit to the ground and seized his moment in the second-half of an encounter Liverpool could and should have won several times over.
He slipped home Roberto Firmino’s pass after 63 minutes to finally break down a Leicester defence that had been heroic in its resistance, even if they offered precious little at the other end.
Finally, Benteke was doing what he was bought for; scoring critical goals. Alas, Liverpool manager Klopp clearly wants more. He spoke afterwards about Benteke needing to provide graft as well as goals — and that is why the striker will not be resting on his laurels.
“We all need his goals, but I don’t only think about him and goals,” Klopp said.
“We are not a team who can play with a striker who scores a goal but is not involved in the game for the other 89 minutes. We need the striker for the other options too, to work for the other minutes.”
Liverpool peppered Leicester all day in a frustrating example of them being so close yet so far from a team who could match the Foxes in being genuine Premier League contenders.
Claudio Ranieri’s side are the surprise frontrunners this season but their brilliant campaign has been based on the giant presence of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth at the back combined with the trickery and execution of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy at the other end.
At Anfield, it was the defensive duo who had it all to do during 90 minutes of utter dominance from Liverpool.
Can, Coutinho, Firmino and Jordan Henderson pulled the strings for the home side but Morgan and Huth could not be broken down. That changed after the break as Benteke remained ice-cool to ultimately decide the contest but a missed open goal by the Belgian in the dying moments sent Anfield into spasms of anxiety and frustration.
Thoughts also turned to what Liverpool could be this term if they could get the perennially injured Daniel Sturridge out on the park, especially after he declared via Twitter that he is feeling fit and ready.
Klopp disagrees.
“We can’t say, come on Daniel now you look good so you can play,” he said.
“I don’t want to see him in training. Because everybody sees him training and they think ‘oh, come on, bring him into the team, we need his quality’. But no. We really, really have to be patient now.”
Although Leicester will be disappointed with their second loss of the season — after failing to score for the first time — they did not give the impression the bubble is going to burst, even with Man City visiting tomorrow.
They simply could not get going, they could not get Mahrez and Vardy into the right areas of the pitch. Ranieri knows more sophistication in the coming weeks will be the order of the day if Leicester’s incredibly entertaining season is to have a finish that every neutral in the land would love to see.
“The team is fantastic,” Ranieri said afterwards, “we work hard for each other, and we are not tired. We must enjoy our football, we must go out and not be nervous and worried about losing. We won’t lose confidence. ”
Mignolet 7, Clyne 6, Lovren 7, Sakho 5, Moreno 6, Henderson 7, Can 7, Firmino 7, Coutinho 7 (Lucas, 90 mins), Lallana 6 (Allen, 90+2 mins, 2), Origi 7 (Benteke, 36 mins, 7)
Schmeichel 6, Fuchs 6, Morgan 7, Huth 7, Simpson 6, Mahrez 7 (Kramaric, 79mins, 5), Kante 7, King 5, Albrighton 5, Vardy 6 (Ulloa, 69mins, 5), Okazaki 5 (Dyer, 69 mins, 6)
Martin Atkinson
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