Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke has explained that he left Liverpool Football Club in the summer of 2016 to ensure he would not remain as 'a loser' on the substitutes bench.
The Belgian forward has also revealed that, on the contrary to most rumours, he never had a falling out with current Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
Speaking toL'Equipeabout his relationship with Klopp,the striker said "We have always had a good relationship.
I went to see him in my first season at Aston Villa in 2013 because he wanted me to sign for Dortmund... It's the sort of thing you have to accept.
You have to face up to it. When Klopp came in, given the players available to him... I wasn't among his first choices.
Given the way he wanted to play, perhaps there were more interesting players than me. But I'm not a child: I didn't cry, I didn't moan, even if of course I wanted to play. It was frustrating.�
LFC XI in this fixture last season: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Lovren, Gomez, Lucas, Can, Milner, Coutinho, Firmino, Benteke.
Lost 3-0!
Benteke arrived in England in August 2012, leaving Genk to join Aston Villa, where he would go on to score 42 goals in 89 appearances before completing a £32.5m move to Liverpool in the 2015 summer transfer window.
The Belgian would endure a frustrating season at Anfield, regularly being used as a substitute under Jurgen Klopp, who would replace Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool manager in October 2015.
The centre-forward would score nine goals in 29 appearances for Liverpool, whereas he already has eight goals in 13 games for Crystal Palace this year.
GRAPHIC: Christian Benteke vs Zlatan Ibrahimovic https://t.co/06Tj0Q0IgT #CRYMUN pic.twitter.com/0BDXrxXIdy
Referring to his impressive start to the season, Benteke suggested "Of course it gives me more confidence. Even if you have a good game, help the team, in the end people only remember whether or not you have scored.
It's thanks to Alan Pardew that I came here, because he believes in me. I needed to get some playing time. I scored early, which was important.
You can't allow yourself to give up, to stay in the situation of a loser, so you try to find a solution, to be happy. I found that by coming to Crystal Palace, and I'm happy today.�