• ‘Jürgen Klopp tried to sign him for Dortmund’ • Belgian striker has largely been kept on bench

Brendan Rodgers has defended the signing of Christian Benteke by claiming his successor at Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp, tried to buy the striker when he was in charge of Borussia Dortmund.

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“I took him to Liverpool in the summer because we were really short on goals and the one thing he does give you is goals, but obviously it’s going to take him time to get up to the way the team wants to play and Jürgen wants to press,” Rodgers told Talksport.

“I think Jürgen will take his time with him,” he added. “In this country, now, everything is very ‘short-termism’, isn’t it? People look at it like, you’ve got to come in, get 20 goals in your first season or you might be deemed a failure.

“I don’t think Jürgen’s looking at it as that. He tried to sign him for Dortmund. He knows he’s a good player. He met the boy, he met the agent, he met them in Germany, so he knows he’s a good player.”

The Belgian striker cost Liverpool £32.5m from Aston Villa in July in what appeared to be a panic buy by Rodgers but has largely been kept on the bench since Klopp took over in October.