Ollie Watkins

[KevinGage]

Brian Green had Benteke down as the best Villa centre forward he'd seen in his lifetime.

He might've seen a player or two. Not just Gray, Little, Shaw and Yorke etc. But prob Hitchens as well.

[LeeB]

All comps Benteke was almost a 1 in 2 game goalscorer, 49 goals in 101 appearances in a team that finished 15th, 15th and 17th in his three glorious seasons with us.

I liked Benteke, but he only managed to get into double figures twice in the next seven seasons with Liverpool and Palace, and was basically finished as a PL striker by the time he was Watkins’ age.

Certain players suit certain styles of play. It's why Unai let Malen go, not because he isn't a quality centre forward but because he apparently didn't suit Unai's "structure". Benteke for us could score every type of goal possible, maybe Liverpool just didn't know what to do with him.

I never thought Benteke was all that.

This thread is full of people arguing that good goalscorers often correspond with weaker team performances. But the fact we were shit when he played for us is seen as a positive for Benteke.

He was nothing before he joined us, was good while we were shit, then went on to be shit elsewhere.

Totally overrated, for me.

In a world of mad takes this is one the maddest.

[chrisw1]

He was utterly unplayable, absolutely superb.  He had everything.

The drop off when he left us was remarkable though. 

[cdbearsfan]

Sorry Rory, that's mental.

[Dogtanian]

Yes, and he looked obviously better than everyone else we had.

I remember thinking early on that there was no way he would be staying with us for long.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Remember his debut against Swansea. Think he missed a good chance, but then scored a much more difficult one.

[Rory]

Sorry Rory, that's mental.

😎

[Monty]

And how many assists did Benteke get anyway?

[Percy McCarthy]

Remember his debut against Swansea. Think he missed a good chance, but then scored a much more difficult one.

He scored from about an inch out IIRC.

[cdbearsfan]

Didn't he chip the goalie then follow in to knock it over the line?

[AV82EC]

Remember his debut against Swansea. Think he missed a good chance, but then scored a much more difficult one.

He scored from about an inch out IIRC.

It was a lovely bit of skill to get him to an inch out tbf.

[cdbearsfan]

Found it:

[dave.woodhall]

He was the best I've ever seen.

[PeterWithesShin]

Benteke was fantastic for us. Scored pens, freekick, headers where he jumped higher than the stand, solo runs, shimmies, overhead, sniffer goals, the lot. He also needed things right, there were times he looked disinterested on the pitch and wouldn't score for a fair while, he tried to leave every summer. I think he needed to be the main man at a club, we became a team built around him and overall he thrived. At Liverpool that wasn't the case, even at Palace Zaha was the main man.

[cdbearsfan]

I think he started pretty well at Liverpool, got a serious injury and was never so good afterwards.