Christian Benteke

[Mumorn]

How many players aged 22 and under were constant starters?

who else was going to score Villas goals? He was the main man.

 

[AdamB]

He is overpriced. Can someone explain why there are suddenly Belgians? Used to be just Plastic Bertrand.

All small countries have their golden generations. Look at Romania when then had Hagi, Popescu etc, Bulgaria when they had Stoichkov's team, Norway and sweden have had their moments, even Wales had Hughes, Giggs, Saunders, Rush, Southall at the same time. Now its Belgiums' turn to have a decent crop of players

Larger countries (where football is a major sport and which have populations over say 30-40 million) will always be there or thereabouts qualifying for 80%+ tournaments but these small countries will do well for a decade say and then have a quiet 10-20 years

 

[Pandy]

does that matter?

Arguably it doesn't mean much but seeing as neither of our strikers are a real presence in the box I think he would be a good signing, with plenty of resale value.

Adebayor is weak in the air and a poor header of the ball, he also tends to play around the box rather than in it. Defoe is too small to ever be an true aerial threat in the box and as a target for longer balls. We rarely get many men piling into the box from deep, often we have just 1 man in the box/ a decent position to score for a lot of the time we have possession in the final third. Regardless of if other signings change this, or the fact that Bale is a threat from anywhere, if that 1 man was Benteke we would have a much more reliable target to be hitting from crosses and deep passes. He would be there more frequently and would provide a much more consistent challenge to defenders, meaning we would hopefully start to see more early balls.

This IMO is all vital because with Bale we have the ultimate counter-attacking player (not to mention Lennon, etc.). Benteke is fairly fast also, but the main thing is he is 6ft4 and knows how to make a nuisance of himself. Teams can defend deep and shut off space for Bale to operate in behind the defence, which this season saw us resort to Bale potshots to win games. This is all well and good - part and parcel of having a world class player. But with Benteke in the box, we would constantly have a threat on the opposition goal lurking, meaning the deeper the opposition defend, the closer they let Benteke get to their goal.

At the moment, teams can defend ridiculously deep and Adebayor/Defoe will be of relatively little threat due to the weaknesses I outlined above. Obviously it is a risk, but neither are potent enough against packed defences to warrant using less compact/deep tactics and sacrifice more space to Bale in goalscoring positions. While 'no one defends against Villa' to paraphrase Scara, I can recall a few goals where Benteke was surrounded by defenders and scored when he had seemingly no right to get to the ball, let alone put it away. This is simply not in Defoe or Ade's game.

Considering his age, his build and ability in the air and his goal return last season (the argument that Villa are brick simultaneously backs up that he is also dangerous on the break - which would be useful in our team), I think he would be a good buy for £15-20m. I doubt Levy would sanction much more than that anyway.

 

[braineclipse]

All small countries have their golden generations. Look at Romania when then had Hagi, Popescu etc, Bulgaria when they had Stoichkov's team, Norway and sweden have had their moments, even Wales had Hughes, Giggs, Saunders, Rush, Southall at the same time. Now its Belgiums' turn to have a decent crop of players

Larger countries (where football is a major sport and which have populations over say 30-40 million) will always be there or thereabouts qualifying for 80%+ tournaments but these small countries will do well for a decade say and then have a quiet 10-20 years

Whilst true that just through random chance a country or two the size of Belgium will at any given time push their own limits and produce a string of good players just through random chance I think they've done more than that in recent years.

They've not only produced some top players, they've seemingly produced a full (international) squad of players and then some. The Romanian, Bulgarian and Swedish golden generations were generally one or two top class players, a handful of good players and the rest were hard working solid players. Norway can't be compared to that even

Belgium have gone beyond that I think and it will be interesting to see if they can continue pushing themselves. Of course so far their players haven't actually even brought them to a tournament, but I think they will do well given some time. Not completely unreasonable to think that they could establish themselves as one of the top "2nd ranked teams" in Europe behind the big boys.

 

[harr1984]

I don't watch any Belgium internationals but Id comfortably take their starting XI over England's....

 

[tommysvr]

Edit: misunderstood another post and had a rant that didn't make sense. Move along...

 

[Nigeyman]

I wonder if you said to must spurs fans you'll get benteke and you will have to pay 20m....I wonder how many spurs fans would go for this is polled...personally I would...

he has already shown what a decent striker he is....read above some wont think he will be an elite striker....I wouldn't be so sure......Belgium are doing well to have him and Lukaku...

I actually don't think we have to have an elite striker.......But a presence in the box someone to give cb's nightmares......he would do the business for us....if we got benteke & Villa it would be amazing!

 

[NaijaSpurs]

How many players aged 22 and under were constant starters?

who else was going to score Villas goals? He was the main man.

I just wish Adebayor had a similar strike rate when he played for us last season.

You speak as if starting guarantees a pplayer will score goals. If so how come Adebayor only scored 5 goals last season in the league

 

[NaijaSpurs]

I wonder if you said to must spurs fans you'll get benteke and you will have to pay 20m....I wonder how many spurs fans would go for this is polled...personally I would...

he has already shown what a decent striker he is....read above some wont think he will be an elite striker....I wouldn't be so sure......Belgium are doing well to have him and Lukaku...

I actually don't think we have to have an elite striker.......But a presence in the box someone to give cb's nightmares......he would do the business for us....if we got benteke & Villa it would be amazing!

Somthing Ade failed to do last season

 

[clevelandspur]

Those saying we shouldn't be in for Benteke are mad at his age and with his ability to find the back of the net we should break the bank he could be amongst the best strikers in the world in our side

 

[scaramanga]

Those saying we shouldn't be in for Benteke are mad at his age and with his ability to find the back of the net we should break the bank he could be amongst the best strikers in the world in our side

A lot of people said the same thing about Darren Bent. Kevin Phillips scored a lot of goals once, so did Andrew Johnson.

There's a possibility that Benteke could be good in a better team. There's also a possibility he'll be complete crap. If you could guarantee he'd perform as well as last season then he's worth £20m - as that's a complete unknown his value has to drop accordingly. Even £12m is quite a risk IMO.

Having seen him score goals last season against plenty of teams playing pretty much 0-5-5 against one of the worst teams in the league I think it's about 50-50 that he'd perform against the 9-1-0 that teams regularly deploy against us.

 

[Rossi22]

A lot of people said the same thing about Darren Bent. Kevin Phillips scored a lot of goals once, so did Andrew Johnson.

There's a possibility that Benteke could be good in a better team. There's also a possibility he'll be complete crap. If you could guarantee he'd perform as well as last season then he's worth £20m - as that's a complete unknown his value has to drop accordingly. Even £12m is quite a risk IMO.

Having seen him score goals last season against plenty of teams playing pretty much 0-5-5 against one of the worst teams in the league I think it's about 50-50 that he'd perform against the 9-1-0 that teams regularly deploy against us.

Let's say he scores 25 next season, what then?

 

[Spursalot]

Let's say he scores 25 next season, what then?

Let's say we buy him and he scores 5 next season, what then?


What then would either be he's worth the amount we've paid, or he's failed to be worth that. At the price he's currently being touted at, the 'failed to do so' is far more likely to occur, imo of course.

 

[Rossi22]

We better not buy anyone in that case.

 

[Spursalot]

We better not buy anyone in that case.

Well no, that's not the case.


I think we should buy someone who is more likely to be worth the money we would pay. It's hardly rocket science. All of this is my opinion of course. People are allowed their own opinions, it seems to be a concept you are finding difficult to grasp.

 

[clevelandspur]

He has much more in his locker than any of those strikers you mentioned even games he didn't score you could see how valuable he was to villa.

We will have to gamble on a striker if we truly want to challenge for the top of the table and I would rather gamble on a player who already is settled in the country and the league. Not to mention with his age his upside is tremendous even in worst case he doesn't set the world alight for us we will be able to recoup money in selling him on.

 

[parklane1]

Benteke is going to be a major player, and if we have a chance to get him we should do so now.

 

[Nigeyman]

Benteke is going to be a major player, and if we have a chance to get him we should do so now.

hear hear......

he will become the player emile heskey should have been.....lol

serious I rate this kid.....great piece of business from last season.....I still reckon pool will get him after selling luis suarez and paying 25m. I also agree with Cleveland....he has done it in the prem putting in great performances......would be seriously stoked if we got him but I don't think levy would go higher than 16-17m for him.

 

[Nigeyman]

Somthing Ade failed to do last season

maybe he was told to drop deep & link up - my other half got tired of me shouting at the tv.....

ffs Ade why aren't you in the box your a friggin striker!!!!!!!!!!!

Benteke would occupy defenders as he is a bully.......giving the likes of gareth more time on the ball to make magic happen.

 

[africanspurs]

Arguably it doesn't mean much but seeing as neither of our strikers are a real presence in the box I think he would be a good signing, with plenty of resale value.

Adebayor is weak in the air and a poor header of the ball, he also tends to play around the box rather than in it. Defoe is too small to ever be an true aerial threat in the box and as a target for longer balls. We rarely get many men piling into the box from deep, often we have just 1 man in the box/ a decent position to score for a lot of the time we have possession in the final third. Regardless of if other signings change this, or the fact that Bale is a threat from anywhere, if that 1 man was Benteke we would have a much more reliable target to be hitting from crosses and deep passes. He would be there more frequently and would provide a much more consistent challenge to defenders, meaning we would hopefully start to see more early balls.

This IMO is all vital because with Bale we have the ultimate counter-attacking player (not to mention Lennon, etc.). Benteke is fairly fast also, but the main thing is he is 6ft4 and knows how to make a nuisance of himself. Teams can defend deep and shut off space for Bale to operate in behind the defence, which this season saw us resort to Bale potshots to win games. This is all well and good - part and parcel of having a world class player. But with Benteke in the box, we would constantly have a threat on the opposition goal lurking, meaning the deeper the opposition defend, the closer they let Benteke get to their goal.

At the moment, teams can defend ridiculously deep and Adebayor/Defoe will be of relatively little threat due to the weaknesses I outlined above. Obviously it is a risk, but neither are potent enough against packed defences to warrant using less compact/deep tactics and sacrifice more space to Bale in goalscoring positions. While 'no one defends against Villa' to paraphrase Scara, I can recall a few goals where Benteke was surrounded by defenders and scored when he had seemingly no right to get to the ball, let alone put it away. This is simply not in Defoe or Ade's game.

Considering his age, his build and ability in the air and his goal return last season (the argument that Villa are brick simultaneously backs up that he is also dangerous on the break - which would be useful in our team), I think he would be a good buy for £15-20m. I doubt Levy would sanction much more than that anyway.

top post dude. sorry i hadnt seen this . i will respond later