Fowler_E7 » Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:02 am wrote:devaney » Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:45 am wrote:Eds - Balotelli has failed wherever he has played to score in the Premirship. Playing him out of position was a minor part of the problem. Benteke by comparison has a cracking scoring record in the Premiership. It's smacks of desperation when you use somebody like Balotelli as an obstacle to criticise Rogers. But hey there is a Y in the day of the week !!
As for Benteke where is there any evidence that he has even had a medical let alone signed? Have I missed something?
Well thats just plain wrong, Ballotelli has a decent goalscoring record for every single team he has player for apart from us, so its perfectly good stick to beat Rodgers with. Lambert also had a decent goal return with Southampton and Rodgers failed to get anything out of him either, so im amazed that anyone thinks it will be any diffrent with Benteke, a player who offers even less movement than Ballotelli.
Balotelli doesn't get himself into enough goal scoring positions, he gets too involved in the build up and ends up drifting all over the place, that's why he ends up taking on so many shots from ridiculous distances and angles.
Benteke on the other hand gets himself into the danger area, he is prepared to do the hard yards in terms of fighting tooth and nail to get on the end of balls slung into the box, practically all of our forwards want to be put through one on one with the keeper, they all want chances put on a plate, none of them (bar Lambert, but he's too slow) are prepared to roll their sleeves up, set up camp on the opposition penalty spot and fight it out with CB's for scraps.
That's why we were so toothless last year, in the opposition box our forwards just allow themselves to be brushed aside or shepherded away from the ball too easily, no one busts a gut to get in front of defenders or put their head in where it hurts.
In terms of technical ability Balotelli is undoubtably better than Benteke but a lot of players were technically better than the likes of Ian Rush and John Aldridge as well, technical ability does not automatically equate to goals scored, goal scoring is an art in itself especially in a physically demanding league like the prem. The likes of Shevchenko and Crespo struggled to cope with the hurly burly of this league, Benteke has proven that he doesn't.
There is definately room in our squad for a player like Benteke, yes it's a lot of money but I'd rather see us spend it on one decent player who will make a contribution than fritter it away on 4 or 5 Borini's, Assaidi's and Luis Alberto's who won't.