Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke is poised to undergo a medical with Liverpool’s club doctor in London.
|||Brendan Rodgers is adamant that Liverpool have addressed the shortage of goals that wrecked last season as he prepares to welcome Christian Benteke.
The Belgian, 24, will have his medical with Liverpool’s club doctor in London today after chief executive Ian Ayre spent the weekend negotiating with his Aston Villa counterpart Tom Fox about how the £32.5million fee would be paid.
Liverpool are expected to pay an initial instalment of £16m for Benteke, a player whom Rodgers has tracked for more than a year, and his signing is a clear show of faith by Fenway Sports Group in their manager, who finished last season under intense criticism.
Rodgers would not talk about Benteke yesterday but he was more open when assessing how beneficial Liverpool’s activity in the transfer window would be.
Benteke’s arrival will take Liverpool’s spending past £60m, having earlier brought in Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings in a bid to get closer to the 102 goals they scored in 2013-14, rather than the return of 52 last season.
‘It was clear we needed to score more goals but I wouldn’t want that to be taken as [though] the other side isn’t important,’ said Rodgers, whose side today play their third friendly, against Adelaide United.
‘Our defensive organisation is critical to allow our talents to flourish. It always has been. You’ve seen on this tour already our pressing game, the intensity to get the ball back quickly and we can do that when we have all the tools in the squad to score goals and create them.
‘People can see the quality of the players coming in and importantly the ones we already have. Once we get that combination together we can go into each competition and put out a really strong team.’
Benteke will not be asked to fly out for the final leg of Liverpool’s tour in Malaysia, instead beginning training at Melwood with Firmino and Philippe Coutinho, who return from their summer break on Wednesday. – Daily Mail
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