Klopp urges Benteke to improve after scoring Sunderland winner

Jurgen Klopp has urged Christian Benteke to improve his game after the Belgian scored the winner against Sunderland on Wednesday evening.

The Belgian also netted the winning goal to sink Leicester City on Boxing Day but Klopp is still pushing the £32.5 million summer signing to elevate his all-round performances.

“A striker who makes the decisive goal, or scores the decisive goal is always a positive thing,” the German said post-match at the Stadium of Light.

“But I’m sure even Christian knows he can play better. But now, we need his goals more than anything else. And he made it [the match winner] again, so we are really satisfied.”

Klopp admitted that while Liverpool could have wrapped up the encounter earlier, he was pleased with their combativeness and concentration against Sunderland.

“It’s better if you decide the game early and things like this but we are not in wonderland,” he said.

“We had to wait for the special moment and work for it, and that’s what we did.

“We took the right information from the first half to try to do better in the second half. We started with better pressing in different situations.

“It’s always the biggest challenge in a game where the first thing to do is fight for second balls, to find the right moment for creative football and in defence for pressing. That’s not too easy.

“In the first half, obviously we had a lot of possession, no real chance or opportunity for Sunderland. They had some set-plays and one counter-attack, I think, but it was a big challenge for us.

“After half-time we forced this goal and could have scored the second one and the decision would have been made, but we didn’t. So we had to stay concentrated until the end. We were and it was a deserved win.”