Former Liverpool midfielder Jan Molby says that Jurgen Klopp must select Christian Benteke to lead the line against Leicester City on Boxing Day.
Leicester travel to Anfield as Premier League leaders after an extraordinary start to the season and they’ll pose a real threat to a Liverpool side that has picked up just one point from their last three games, all of which they should really be winning if they want to be genuine contenders this season.
Writing in his column for the Liverpool Echo, Molby said that Liverpool need to start the Belgian striker up front to help calm down a potentially manic game.
He said:
Christian Benteke has to start up front for Liverpool against Leicester City.
When you’re not playing well – and Liverpool certainly aren’t – it’s not the time to be trying new things or playing people out of position. The false nine and front three just didn’t work against Watford.
Benteke will give Liverpool someone to hit and a way of playing. It has the makings of a superb game which could just get wild and out of control. At that stage Liverpool will want a situation where they can get the ball into Benteke’s feet and calm the game down a bit for a while.
The former Denmark international was full of praise for Claudio Ranieri’s men and pointed to Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy as the two biggest threats in the Leicester side.
Everybody has been waiting for Leicester to unravel but it hasn’t happened yet.
You know where the threat is coming from – Mahrez must be the best player in the Premier League at the moment and Jamie Vardy is a constant threat behind – but no-one has been able to stop it.
They’re quite prepared to come and play an open running game so while Liverpool have struggled against teams who have sat back it could actually suit us.
Molby also spoke highly of Emre Can and said that the German midfielder could play a huge part in turning around Liverpool’s recent poor run of form.
A lot of attention has focused on the centre back situation and things like that.
But for me the most vital requirement is somebody creative in midfield, who can pick the right pass and get the team moving forwards.
At the moment we have Emre Can who is showing a lot of good things but is still relatively inexperienced.
Alongside that you’ve got Lucas and he’s always been a very careful passer – what we need is bang the opposite of that, somebody who will gamble on a ball and perhaps open a team up.
Believe me, the difference this type of player could have on the whole team is massive.
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