Christian Benteke’s new Liverpool squad number has a pretty chequered history

When researching his new squad number, as we presume all players do, Christian Benteke would have been intimidated by the Liverpool players who wore the number 9 jersey in the 1990s.

Benteke is expected to take over the number 9 jersey when Rickie Lambert leaves Anfield this summer and he will join the likes of two of the greatest Liverpool strikers of all time. Ian Rush was proudly wearing the 9 on his back when the Premier League started in 1992 before handing it over to fellow Reds hero Robbie Fowler at the start of the 1996/97 season. There was a bit of a blip after "God" left for Leeds in 2001 as Nicolas Anelka held the shirt for a season before clinical striker spitter El-Hadji Diouf took it off his hands. Cult hero Djibril Cisse was the next to take the honour of Liverpool's number 9 between 2004 and 2006 but the return of Robbie saw Fowler regain his previous squad number for a year. Fernando Torres enjoyed the best years of his career in the number 9 of Liverpool before the club seemed to lose all interest in the shirt number. Since Torres' departure, the lacklustre trio of Andy Carroll, Iago Aspas and Rickie Lambert have sported the number 9. But optimistic Reds fans will be hopeful that their big-money signing of the summer Christian Benteke will be able to return the famous 'Pool shirt to its former glory.