In a chat with Sky Sports, Christian Benteke revealed what excites him about Patrick Vieira, and also discussed what Crystal Palace training is like.
What’s the story?
Well, the £27m striker said that he finds Vieira’s playing style ‘exciting’ after the Frenchman explained his philosophy to the Belgian.
Sky Sports quote Benteke as saying: “We had a good chat, and he was happy to see me back.
“He also explained to me his ID, how he wants us to play as a team, and it’s quite exciting, because as a forward, when your manager wants to be front foot, and to create chances, that’s what you want to hear.”
Presumably, the 30-year-old can’t wait to get started under an attack-minded manager, after being stifled by Roy Hodgson for years.
With all due respect to the 73-year-old, we feel his tactics held Benteke back, and directly resulted in his woeful run of six goals in three seasons.
As WhoScored shows, no Premier League side delivered fewer crosses than Crystal Palace last season, as the Eagles averaged 14 per game.
Also, Hodgson’s setup resulted in the south Londoners taking just 9.2 shots per game – only West Brom and Sheffield United had fewer.
Clearly, Benteke wasn’t getting enough service.
What is training like under Patrick Vieira?
Interestingly, Crystal Palace’s No.20 shed light on what training is like under Vieira.
Benteke told Sky Sports: “Are there similarities to Vieira as a player? Yes, yes, yes. The way that we train is quite intense. He wants to go forward, he wants the midfielder to break lines.”
Martin Kelly also revealed that Vieira had the players doing double training sessions, in a bid to speed up the teaching of his footballing philosophy.
By all accounts, there’s plenty to be excited about in SE25 right now.
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