Milner praises ‘complete striker’ Benteke

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The Belgium international striker finalised his £32.5m from Aston Villa on Wednesday after completing a medical. 

He becomes Brendan Rodgers’ seventh summer signing and further bolsters the club’s attacking options following the arrivals of Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings.

Milner, who signed for Liverpool earlier this summer after leaving Manchester City, told Sky Sports News HQ“I’d rather play with him to be honest. He’s a pretty complete striker. 

“He’s got strength and pace, can score with his feet, his head and he’s a handful. He’s proved that he can score goals in the Premier League.

“It’s another great signing for us, we’ve already got a good squad here and adding players of his quality is a big boost for us again.”

Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler and Dietmar Hamann have also offered Benteke their backing.

“I’m absolutely delighted. I think he’s an excellent player, he will get us goals,” Fowler said.

“He’s a proven Premier League player so I’m excited he’s joined. I think we probably needed a player to take a little bit of the burden off a few of the other players as well so hopefully he’ll be a massive success and score loads of goals for us.

“He has scored goals everywhere he’s been,” He said.

“He’s a big, strong lad so he’s not going to get knocked off the ball too easily, and when you’ve got a player like that I think he can buy time for the midfield players and even the defenders to get up there and support him so it’s a real good time to be a Liverpool fan.”

Dietmar Hamann, who spent seven seasons as a Liverpool player, agreed with Fowler that the Belgian international can have a great impact.

“He showed that he more or less single handedly kept Aston Villa in the league last season,” he said.

“I’m very excited to see him, I think he could be the final piece in the jigsaw because the problem for Liverpool last season is they didn’t score enough goals.

“Hopefully with him, with the arrival of (Divock) Origi and also Danny Ings I think we’ve got the firepower now to challenge for the top four position, and not to forget Daniel Sturridge who will hopefully be back at some stage, so I think that’s been the problem last season, not scoring enough goals.

“There’s enough players now who are capable of doing it, they just need the service but again with the players behind Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino arriving at the club  – I expect a lot more from Markovic – I think they should create enough chances for these guys to score.”