Brendan Rodgers Wants Liverpool To Build Momentum In Finland Friendly

Rodgers, who is expected to feature the 19-year old more prominently this season, following the departure of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City, has described the winger as a top performer and has backed him to succeed at the club. He has been linked to several clubs outside of England in the past month with Italian club Sampdoria reportedly leading the race to sign the former Italian global.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has stated that Christian Benteke’s £32.5 million transfer fee will prove to be a bargain once the striker shows the Kop what he can do. Long suspected to be an obvious choice for Benteke if Liverpool managed to pry him from Aston Villa’s cold dead hands, it’s perhaps not the most startling of confirmations. Part of the deal for Sebastian Coates in 2011 involved Liverpool providing funding for Nacional’s academy and getting the chance to take promising youngsters on trial along with the right of first refusal should another club bid on a target Liverpool wanted. We felt he needed a loan, has gone out and did really well.

“I’ve read and seen things about his game, but in the short period of time he’s been in, I’ve been even more impressed”.

The Reds let both Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh go at the end of last season, following an in depth review from our owners, with Sean O’Driscoll the other new man to come in as a result of the sweeping changes.

For all his enthusiasm, however, Rodgers is not going to make a decision on whether Benteke will play at Stoke until the last moment.

“He’s surprised people in the early stages of life at Liverpool with that mobility and the quickness of his feet – and his natural power and strength is there to see”, Rodgers said.

“We mustn’t forget he’s still only 19”, he added.