Former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor feels Daniel Sturridge and Christian Benteke failed to combine up front during the Reds’ 3-1 loss to Swansea City in the Premier League on Sunday.

Even though Liverpool started with Sturridge, Jurgen Klopp had to introduce Christian Benteke at the half-time break with his team trailing 2-0.




The Belgian international even managed to cut Swansea’s lead in the 65th minute, but the Welsh outfit scored two minutes later to regain control of the game.

Divock Origi was Klopp’s preferred striker before he picked up an ankle injury in the 4-0 win over Everton in the Merseyside derby on 20th April.
 


In Origi’s absence, Klopp played Roberto Firmino up front in the 1-0 loss to Villarreal in the Europa League semi-final first leg last week, while Benteke has fallen down the pecking order at Anfield.

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And Mellor, who explained that the forwards failed to forge a successful partnership at the Liberty Stadium despite Benteke bagging a goal, thinks Sturridge did very little to suggest that he deserves to start against Villarreal in the return leg on Thursday.

“What was interesting in the second half was that Benteke was on as a front-two with Sturridge”, Mellor told LFC TV after the game.

“They never seemed to link up as a pair. These are two players who are perhaps a little bit frustrated at not having a lot of game-time recently.

“Origi is the main man, unfortunately he is injured at the moment.

“It was an opportunity and Sturridge has disappointed.

"The second leg against Villarreal is a huge game and I’m not sure that he did enough to say to Jurgen Klopp ‘I want to start that game on Thursday.’

“And then Benteke comes on and he could be an option on Thursday. He scores a goal, but as a pair, they didn’t really work together.

“There were times when Benteke was looking for his strike partner, and it seemed the distance was too far between them.”