Understandably, questions were raised when Liverpool first decided to meet Christian Benteke's £32.5 million release clause in the summer, making the striker the club's second-most expensive ever signing in the process. 

Despite boasting 49 goals in 100 games in all competitions across three years for a poor Aston Villa side, essentially one goal per every two games, plenty of people asked whether Benteke's individual style would prevent him from continuing his rich goalscoring form on Merseyside.

Little over six months into his Anfield career, the 25-year-old has done little to dismiss those kind of concerns despite firing six goals in 17 top-flight appearances, a return not too far shy of the prolific record he maintained in the Midlands, and seven in 22 games in total.

Despite lifting Liverpool to back-to-back wins over the festive period with the match-winning goals in 1-0 victories over Leicester City and Sunderland, having previously also found the back of the net in wins over Bournemouth and Chelsea and a draw at home to Southampton - a total of 10 points which the striker has directly won and another three which he has hugely helped towards (Chelsea) - his signature still looks like it was the wrong decision.

Previous manager Brendan Rodgers backed Benteke to bring the goals his side had desperately missed in 2014-15. That year, Liverpool scored just 52 goals in 38 league games (with a goal difference of +4) after hitting 101 (and a goal difference of +54) only the year before. In what was his final stand, Rodgers backed himself to be able to get the best out of Benteke.

Leaving himself with just one natural winger in his first-team - Jordon Ibe - as he loaned out Lazar Marković and promised James Milner, who had predominantly played out wide for Manchester City in the seasons before joining, a role in central midfield proved a poor decision in hindsight and the decision to sign Benteke and not adapt to his different style, even more so.

Rodgers, clearly, got it wrong and that plus a culmination of other issues saw him lose his job just two months into the current campaign. But even Jürgen Klopp, who has looked to imprint a high-pressing, 100 miles-per-hour style-of-play since his appointment in October, has found the challenge equally as difficult to conquer. Regardless of quotes surfacing directly from Benteke, shortly after Klopp arrived on English soil, about the German's attempts to sign him for Borussia Dortmund after his hugely successful first year at Villa - Klopp also has no answers, yet, as to how to get the best out of Benteke and elevate him to kind of levels we saw him hit whilst at Villa Park.

Why have Benteke's recent performances been so flat?

Benteke rues a missed chance in December's draw with West Brom. (Picture: Getty Images)
Benteke rues a missed chance in December's draw with West Brom. (Picture: Getty Images)

In truth, it was fairly obvious from the start that Benteke - at least in the current side - was never going to fit in unless changes were made, but that isn't necessarily all the fault of the striker himself. 

The Reds' top-scorer made the switch from an Aston Villa side that was engineered to get the best out of him. They were purposefully built to supply Benteke with enough service so that he could plunder the goals to keep them afloat in the Premier League, because - to put it bluntly - they had precious little quality throughout the rest of their line-up - hence their highest finish with Benteke in the side being 15th despite him hitting double figures in all three years he was there.

From a side perfectly suited to his strengths and qualities, to a side that demonstrated they thrived more off of movement, tenacity and pace - the transition was always going to be difficult. Previous evidence suggested so, with Liverpool having struggled to adapt to having similar players, in Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli, up-front the same year in which their goals dried up. Coincidental. In fact, it was not until Rodgers made the bold move of turning to Raheem Sterling - with first-choice striker Daniel Sturridge's endless injury woes deeming him unreliable - as a single striker, that they looked near capable of finishing inside the top-four.

Lambert and Balotelli, though arguably not as good as Benteke despite being good players on their own merits, looked just as ill-suited to the Liverpool team as the Belgian does now. Andy Carroll, the £35 million Geordie who scored just 11 goals in 58 games in all competitions after becoming the club's most expensive signing in their history, suffered due to similar problems. The Liverpool team did not cater for their needs and acted surprised once they didn't in turn produce the goods. 

Benteke hasn't been helped. The suggestions that he could bring an extra dimension to the Reds' style-of-play have since proven largely fruitless, just as the plans for Lambert to be a 'Plan B' in times of need fell flat.

Against the sides which have come to Anfield and defended with a 'low block' and henceforth giving the hosts almost all of the possession and challenging them to break their resolute back-line down, the supposed ability of Benteke to hold up the ball and bring the attacking midfielders - such as Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana - into the play and give them space, has proved futile. Instead, Liverpool have struggled as much against those types of sides as they did last year, when they endured countless draws at home to mid-to-lower table teams.

On the whole, however, Liverpool have looked much more fluid and dangerous with the front-three of Firmino, Coutinho and Lallana. With Benteke, everything has looked disjointed. The cute interlinking football between the trio is a world away from the clueless forward line that Liverpool look like when asked to play with Benteke as the focal point, precisely because the striker doesn't suit their strengths and vice versa. Hence how excellent Coutinho often looks with Sturridge ahead of him, because both flourish off of those through balls in behind.

Reds not playing to Benteke's strengths?

Benteke frustrated with himself after missing a close-range opportunity in the 0-0 draw with Arsenal. (Picture: Getty Images)
Benteke frustrated with himself after missing a close-range opportunity in the 0-0 draw with Arsenal. (Picture: Getty Images)

In the Premier League this season, only Rudy Gestede has won more aerial duels on average than Benteke. That's no surprise, with the 27-year-old stepping into a Villa team that adopted a similar approach with the Belgian up-front, regardless of their seemingly constant change of managers. This could be construed as a selective statistic, but it goes some way to showing that Benteke is more than capable in the air. That's obvious if you've watched regular Premier League football over the last few years. Consider further, he has scored 14 headers since the start of the 2012-13 season. Only Arsenal's Olivier Giroud can beat that, with 17 headed goals in the same time span. 

Whilst it would be naive to claim that Benteke is only strong in the air and can only score from long balls and being a target man, because of the sheer variety of goals which he has scored both for Villa and Liverpool, there can be little doubt over the fact that the striker's biggest strengths lie in his aerial ability - an area Liverpool clearly aren't exploiting enough. That's shown by Liverpool scoring the joint-least headers in the league this season, with only two of their 22 total goals coming from headers. Add that, then, to a near inability to convert from set-pieces - having scored only more (five) than Newcastle United, Swansea City (both four) and Everton (three) and it seems to suggest Benteke isn't getting near enough service in the air. But it's not quite that simple.

Even his ability to bully defenders in the air seems to have evaded him at times in a red shirt. That's a sentence that seems ridiculous, given you only watch his sumptuous header against Southampton, but there are various examples of him not making the most of chances he would be expected to bury. A close-range header in their FA Cup draw against League Two outfit Exeter City is one such pertinent example, putting it straight at the goalkeeper from a few yards out. A header he put over the bar from Alberto Moreno's inviting delivery in a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion in early December, another example. Another, an equally as wasteful header which he put over from five yards out, again from a Moreno left-sided cross in the loss to Crystal Palace. They are just three specifically pinpointed, there are still more. 

Of course, you can consider the argument that Benteke is not being given enough opportunities to work with too. In some games, this is true. The two most recent games, the draw with Exeter and the 2-0 loss to West Ham United in the first game of the New Year, Benteke had few crosses to really work with - the two that stick to mind, the one that forced a good save from the goalkeeper (although he should have scored it) and another from Brad Smith's cross against the Hammers which was goalbound, before being blocked.

In other games, however, this isn't the case because he is equally as guilty of wasting opportunities which therefore give teammates less confidence in his ability to convert from chances. Whilst he scored winners against Leicester and Sunderland, which he must take credit for, in both games he missed gilt-edged opportunities on the break late on. The Leicester miss which has now become almost famous, wasting a five-on-one counter where the goalkeeper was off his line, whereas he should have done better with a one-on-one at Sunderland late on too.

He missed an excellent chance away at Arsenal in August, in a 0-0 draw, putting his shot straight at the 'keeper from point-blank distance. He's also failed to capitalise upon good chances at Manchester City and Newcastle, another one-on-one and a dropping ball which he poked over the crossbar at a corner - something which would have given them the lead in a game they went on to lose.

By contrast, someone like Sturridge would be expected to bury the same opportunities - having proved himself so clinical over the years despite injuries. Four goals in six games this season is testament to that, with clever strikes against Villa and Southampton testament to that. That lack of confidence is something that can only be speculated about, given we don't get to be a fly on the wall in the dressing room, but watching someone like Coutinho, who has recently tended to cut inside and shoot rather than look for Benteke - gives us an insight into the player's thoughts on Benteke, not just the fan's thoughts.

Are Liverpool guilty of their own over-expectations?

The Belgian has regularly cut a frustrated figure on Merseyside. (Picture: Getty Images)
The Belgian has regularly cut a frustrated figure on Merseyside. (Picture: Getty Images)

The definition of insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. That's none more true than with Benteke. Whilst it would be wrong, and dismissive of Benteke's talent, to suggest he's one-dimensional or a 'one trick pony' - it would be equally as ignorant to expect him to become the 20-goal-a-season striker that Liverpool need unless they are to adapt the way in which they supply the striker.

That said, it is a two-way street and Benteke also needs to prove that he is capable of making more of the service he is given. Too many times, Benteke has looked lacklustre and slow to get to the crosses which his teammates have endeavoured to get into him. Other times, he has barely even tried to meet them. Again to pick an example from the draw at Exeter, watching Benteke's positioning and his movement for Sheyi Ojo's cross which leaves to Brad Smith's goal - he is in the completely wrong place, whereas if he moves five yards nearer to the ball, he taps it in.

His positioning, and timing, certainly comes into question frequently and these are the qualities he needs to improve upon to be more consistent and make the most of the, admittedly little, service he currently receives. It's even the same story for balls and passes he receives into feet inside the box. Constantly, it seems, that when the No.9 should be in a central area - he drops deep to the edge of the box for a cutback or hangs around the back post where it's harder to find him with the pass.

Be it through low confidence, despite scoring six goals in 1140 minutes (roughly 12.6 full 90 minute games) and near enough hitting his one-in-two ratio, or simply a lack of awareness - Benteke isn't getting into the best positions to score goals regularly enough. Add this to the fact he isn't naturally the one to stay on the last defender's shoulder and look to make those incisive runs in behind such as someone like Sturridge would and it's going to make him look less potent, and less able, in certain games.

Though he's not particularly slow, his acceleration isn't exactly lightning quick and he's not particularly mobile either - as shown by one chance in the loss to West Ham. When released into a position by Firmino, with free space ahead of him and a clear sight of goal Benteke was too slow to get off the mark, seemingly thinking he had more time than he actually did, which allowed James Collins to track back and recover the ball.

And yet, providing Liverpool's scouting team did their jobs adequately, this is something they shouldn't have come to expect from Benteke. You can suggest he should be doing better "for a £32.5 million striker" but he earned that valuation from Villa playing a different way. He was never going to come to Liverpool and play like Sturridge, matching his movement, pace and technical skills - nor were Balotelli, Lambert or even Carroll ever going to play like the players they were brought in to try and 'replace'.

It is perhaps for this why Benteke must be sympathised with. Of course, he's missed a number of high-quality chances that he should be converting, but in terms of his general game, and for the reason why team performances and his individual performances - bar exceptions at City, Chelsea and in the first-half away at Arsenal - have been below-par with Benteke in the team - it's because he is not being helped. A leopard can't change its spots, as the old saying goes.

What next for Benteke and Liverpool?

Benteke celebrates his winner against Bournemouth back in August. (Picture: Getty Images)
Benteke celebrates his winner against Bournemouth back in August. (Picture: Getty Images)

With all that in mind, at the minute, the future looks bleak for Christian Benteke's Liverpool career and there is little hope of that changing whether he fires another five goals or fifteen this season. More likely, the club will cut their losses yet again on a big money striker whom they failed to integrate into a side that was never going to allow them to succeed anyway. 

Should Liverpool, and Jürgen Klopp, decide to sell the striker on and look to reinvest more acutely - they could still recuperate a decent fee for Benteke. That could go into bringing someone a bit more like Sturridge in, who could play alongside the Englishman when fit but equally as comfortably play as a lone striker when Sturridge is injured, something more a question of 'when' rather than 'if'.

On the other hand, it's still possible for Liverpool to make a success out of Benteke in a red shirt. Yes, it is. But it will require immense compromises from both sides. How likely they are to be made is another matter, given Klopp struggled as Borussia Dortmund manager to replace prolific striker Robert Lewandowski, with Ciro Immobile, until the pacier alternative of Pierre-Emmerick Aubameyang - a striker more similar to Lewandowski - began to fulfil his promise.

Benteke has his uses, of course, he's shown that through the years and he's still going to score goals if nothing does change. Though he has shown a frustrating tendency to make more of the 'harder' chances than the easier, clear-cut ones - as shown by the goals he's scored for Liverpool and the chances he's missed - he's a very good striker and he's efficient enough to score double figures this year, as he is every years.

But the Reds haven't played to Benteke's strengths and don't ever look like playing to them in the near future. Whilst it would show Fenway Sports Group got it massively wrong, it might be best for both the player and the club for Benteke to be shown the exit door, for as good a price Liverpool can get. Only then can Klopp finally bring in a frontman qualified to fire them into the Champions League. 

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.