Benteke will shine at Liverpool – Rodgers

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The Belgian completed a £32.5million move from Aston Villa on Wednesday and despite an impressive return of roughly a goal every other game at the Midlands club, there have been suggestions that Benteke might be ill-suited to the passing game preferred by Rodgers.

The Ulsterman though has no such concerns and has backed his new striker to make a real impact at Anfield.

“There’s a number of qualities that he has and he will only improve in his time at the club,” he told the club’s official website.

“I think first and foremost his goals, if you look at his goals record since the time that he’s been in the Premier League he’s up there with the best in terms of numbers. So that was very important for us.

“Obviously I’ve heard and I’ve seen stuff about the style, ‘he won’t fit the style of how we play’ – I think he’ll only complement it and help us.”

Rodgers insists that Benteke has all the attributes to enhance Liverpool’s attacking options and thinks he can only get better.

“He’s a big guy but he’s got the attributes that I like in terms of pace and movement and he gets goals, he gets all types of goals,” he added.

“He’s great in the air, strong, he can hold the game up, he can play on the counter-attack, he can play whenever the team is deep because he can hold the ball up with his physical strength.

“As I said, he’s a boy that still is improving in his game so I don’t think there’s any doubt he’ll fit our tactical idea of the game and he can be a huge player for us.”