Christian Benteke: another Belgian talent on the rise
His match winning prowess is invaluable for a club like Aston Villa who need players to lead the club to safety. 20-year old Benteke is taking the initiative with Aston Villa, getting points every time he has scored so far this season.
The highlight so far in his Villa career was a sensational performance away at Anfield, where his combination of creativity and athleticism demolished the Reds, with the Belgian scoring two goals and assisting another to complete a shock result.
But seven days later he was the lone striker as Aston Villa surrendered to an eight goal defeat away at Chelsea. After all the deserved praise from the previous weekend, Benteke was smothered by Ivanovic and Cahill forcing Benteke to play “off the shoulder” far too often, and was constantly offside.
Benteke was a late transfer from Belgian club Genk, where he had scored 19 goals in 41 games in the 2011-12 season. 7 million was a steep figure for a player with little experience at such a competitive level that the Premier League demands week after week.
He was introduced to the Premier League at Villa Park in the fixture versus an in form Swansea City, and had an instant impact, as he scored coming on as a late sub. At the early stages of his career, his place in the Villa starting line-up was questioned, as his first touch seemed heavy, while a proven Premier League striker in Darren Bent didn’t even make the substitute bench.
But Benteke established himself as the spearhead of the Aston Villa attack in the absence of Darren Bent, with goals in important matches such as the equaliser versus Norwich and the late winner versus Reading.
One of the stand-out games for Benteke in a Villa shirt was in the Capital One Cup, where after 85 minutes, he had bulldozed through the usually air tight Norwich defence. His subtle combination play with Andres Weimann led to him unselfishly playing in the Austrian for his second goal of the night, while scoring from 20 yards himself in the 90th minute to complete a 4-1 victory.
December 15th was the date where I feel that Benteke began to really stand out. The Claret and Blue’s encountered Liverpool at Anfield. Villa needed a win as they were slowly creeping into the relegation zone at this time. Lambert changed Villa’s system to shore up the back line by changing to 5-3-2 counter attacking system.
Aston Villa lined up with the youngest average age for a starting eleven this season, but the roars of the Kop didn’t affect them. Suddenly Benteke nonchalantly pushed the ball out of his feet and unleashed a low shot inside Pepe Reina’s near post from 25 yards out.
The Belgian then turned provider when in arguably the best team goal of the season he raced onto a Weimann pass, then returning the play to Weimann through a sublime backheel for Weimann to score. In the second half, Benteke collected a sloppy Joe Cole pass and bounced off a Martin Skrtel challenge before slotting past the helpless Reina.
The Christmas period left Villa with zero goals and thirteen conceded, so that in itself states that Benteke didn’t influence games as much as he would have liked during this period. But he has scored in consecutive away games against Swansea and the opener, a stunning shot coming in at 68mph from 28 yards out, in the local derby versus West Brom. In the second leg of the of the Capital One Cup tie with Bradford, Benteke, despite scoring the opener was on the losing side over both legs.
Benteke has impressed in his debut season by finding consistent goal scoring form. But he still has to improve the timing of runs and hold up play. His strength and aerial ability give him great tools for goal scoring, which he has used to score seven league goals this season.
Aston Villa have won five and drawn four of the nine games Benteke has scored in for all competitions. Expect top clubs to be monitoring his situation at Villa over the summer if he continues this form for the rest of the season.