Fearful Jurgen Klopp praises Christian Benteke

Jurgen Klopp will not be surprised if Christian Benteke comes back to haunt Liverpool today.

Liverpool paid £32.5m to sign the striker from Aston Villa in the summer of 2015 but then sold him a year later to Crystal Palace.

Now Benteke will line up against Liverpool for the first time since leaving Anfield and will no doubt be looking to prove a point.

The Belgium striker has made a good early impression at Palace, scoring three goals in seven Premier League games, and he has an admirer in Klopp despite the decision to let him go.

The Reds boss said of Benteke’s form: “It’s no surprise. When you have a player like Christian in your squad, of course we knew about his quality.

“But every player needs the space to perform, to develop, and to show things. For different reasons we couldn’t give him all the time (he needed), you lose a little bit of confidence, you feel pressure.

“We couldn’t change it and I thought, and I’m pretty sure Christian thinks the same, it made sense. He made the transfer so, for Crystal Palace, what a player. We know it best because we had him all the time in training and in all moments he showed always his quality.”

Keeping a large squad full of international players happy is a perennial issue for the Premier League’s top managers.

This week Simon Mignolet said he would never be happy as a number two after Klopp announced Loris Karius was his first-choice keeper.

But the German insisted his is a happy camp, saying: “I’m always honest and I say my door and the door in the team is always open, but it’s about performing.

“We have always this agreement: Work hard, don’t talk too much, win games. If a player doesn’t want to be happy I can’t keep him happy, but if he wants to be happy it’s quite easy for me to keep him happy.”

Liverpool head down to London looking to make it six wins from seven Premier League games, a run that has put them level on points with Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table.

A young Reds team defeated Tottenham in the EFL Cup in midweek and Klopp’s impact has been praised by Alex Ferguson. The former Manchester United manager said the German has revived Liverpool’s enthusiasm and that the Reds are title contenders.

“I’m not sure it’s allowed if I say I like Alex Ferguson as Liverpool manager,” said Klopp with a smile.

“When he has to say something positive about Liverpool, it’s better than if he would say something negative so it’s all good. But it doesn’t mean a lot. It doesn’t disturb us or help us.”

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