Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Liverpool legend John Barnes insists Christian Benteke will not leave Anfield at the end of the season and believes he still has a place in Jurgen Klopp squad.
Benteke joined Liverpool last season for a record £32.5million from Aston Villa and has found life difficult at the club, especially since Klopp took over as manager.
The 25-year-old has not started a Premier League game since January and critics have claimed the lanky forward is not suited to Klopp's high energy, pressing style of play after scoring just eight goals in 35 appearances in all competitions for the Reds.
However Barnes, who played for Liverpool for a decade, does not think Liverpool will let Benteke go for a number of reasons, the chief among them being the striker's expensive salary requirements.
"I don't think Benteke's going to be leaving the club at all," Barnes told Omnisport. "Is someone going to give us money to pay his salary?"
"The problem that football fans have is that when we talk about players leaving clubs or getting rid of players, first of all you have to say do they want to go? Because players don't have to leave if they don't want to.
"And whether you can get better players, there's no point players leaving if you're not going to get better players.
"So when they talk about Benteke leaving I don't think he'll necessarily leave. As to whether he's going to start or someone's going to come in ahead of him, that may be a possibility, but I don't think he's necessarily going to leave the club."
The 53-year-old is confident Klopp will figure out the best way to utilise Benteke's abilities.
"With Benteke, you have to find a solution to get the best out of him, in terms of us helping him but also he has to fit into what they want," Barnes added.
"Obviously Benteke wasn't signed by Klopp, so we don't know whether he likes him and whether he wants to play that type of football, but I think all the players have got on well with him."
