Christian Benteke scored twice and turned in an excellent all-round centre-forward’s performance for Aston Villa in their 3-1 win at Liverpool on Saturday, so Football Burp paid visits to the Villa Talk and Heroes & Villains message boards to see what the Villa Park faithful were saying about Paul Lambert’s £7m Belgian…

ThunderPower_14, Villa Talk…

Drogbaesque

Just has absolutely everything you need to be a successful striker at the top level.

Ross, Heroes & Villains…

Happy days and hats off to Lambert and his scouting team. Can’t remember us pulling a rabbit out the hat like this for many many years.

ryanvilla_1994, Villa Talk…

So much better than Bent

villan from luton, Heroes & Villains…

This guy can be better than Peter Withe and Andy Gray

AVFC-Prideofbrum, Villa Talk…

He really is a level above and it’ll be a shame when he goes. I mean that in a nice gesture to him rather than negative to the club but he’ll find himself at a really big club soon enough. He plays with so much maturity, you never get a sense of ‘where’s he going?’ or ‘what’s he doing?’ he’s calm, technically so sound, intelligent and will score goals in the air and on the ground, from 6 yards or from 20 yards. He’s just 22. He’s a special player.

supertom, Heroes & Villains…

It’s like we’ve got a younger, harder working, less injury prone John Carew. Brilliant. To be honest, without wanting to sound like I’m getting ahead of myself, we might just have the next Drogba. I mean Benteke, in this form is unplayable. He’s a matchwinner. He makes things happen, scores goals but has awareness of his teammates.
That second goal yesterday was utter brilliance. It was the sort of football we hoped for when PL arrived. Think we’ll see more of it too.
Weimann is an ideal partner too. He’s clever, technically good and reads and runs off the big man well. Plus he works his nuts off.

I know Benteke’s brilliance does mean we’ve got that niggling worry of him getting poached a year or two down the line. But we’ll get top dollar for him. I actually think though, that even if he ends up moving on (hopefully not), he could well be key in developing Weimann into a top class striker. I think Weimann would stay here longer term.

I’m gonna enjoy every mintute of Eke though. I love the big man. Class.

Big_John_10, Villa Talk…

If this is the sort of talent Henke has in his notebooks then I’m very excited about January.

The Laughing Policeman, Heroes & Villains…

I have a cunning plan to stop other clubs trying to steal him off us.
We need to start a “Benteke is crap” campaign.
We could start by pointing out his deficiencies, such as he’s a crap goal keeper. And the mere fact that he’s far too young to be as good as he appears to be. He hates Russian oligarchs and Arab oil sheiks.

LockStockVilla, Villa Talk…

My word, this kid’s technical skills are so underrated. Such good decision making with the ball at his feet. I shall name my first born Ben Teke.

Woodytom, Villa Talk…

Hes the best player Ive ever seen at Villa Park by a country mile. Dwight Yorke was quality, this lad has the has the potential to be at the very very top!

bob, Heroes & Villains…

He is great, has started really well and still carries with him an aura of unknown potential.

I do not share others inclination to rush to comparisions with other strikers, in particular Yorke, in whatever sense. It’s just too soon. To say he is better than Yorke is frankly ridiculous.

He is exciting, but convincing yourself he is so good that he is guaranteed to be snapped up by a more powerful club is only setting yourself up for disappointment whatever the outcome.

PatrickCousens, Villa Talk…

We’ll certainly have to show a bit of ambition to keep in in the summer and probably offer him a big new contract. Let’s just hope he has the patience to stick around. £25m player probably, given his age, and I’d trust Lambert to reinvest that if he did go.

Fair play to the guy, to think after his first 3 or 4 games I didn’t think he was ready for the first team. Monster.

LamboAlways, Heroes & Villains…

Alan Shearer has just said it’s the best performance he’s seen off a centre forward all season. Long may it continue

Andy BM, Villa Talk…

villa have always been a selling club, no matter what interest there is, villa always say yes to the first offer, no matter how insulting it is, we might make a bit of profit on some players, dwight yorke being an example, but most, just a joke

i cant see benteke going in january, but if the dirty cheating top 4 came in and say offered, £12m for example, i reckon the villa board would cave in because thats how spineless they are, and then were back to square one

its a sorry situation

on a positive note, what a player he is!

flamingsombrero, Villa Talk…

The best part of it all is there appears to be a genuine strike partnership developing between him and Weimann. God knows how long it’s been since we have had two strikers on the field who genuinely seem to be in tune with one another, let hope it continues to develop.

Irish Villain, Heroes & Villains…

I am dosed up on flu medication but I genuinely believe this villa side, still very much a work in progress, has the potential to achieve more than the MON years. If we could keep this group for three or four years, and add one or two really astute buys along the way, I think we could be looking at top six again and maybe an actual cup run.

Benteke is better than any striker we had in the MON years, Guzan is probably already better than Friedal while Baker and Clark will only improve and Vlaar is second only to Martin Laursen. Lowton is as good as any right back we have had since Delaney while Westwood and Bannan are still improving.

I think we are about three signings and a year/two years away from having a really good side. Maybe we can get them all to buy into that and see where villa can take them in their careers?

I am quite optimistic. The youth is the key to it all, they will and are improving whereas MON’s teams tended to be stacked with too many journeymen.

Lambert’s looks like a proper project.

How far do you think Benteke can go in the game, Villa fans? Have your say in the comments section below…