Villa striker Christian Benteke can silence his critics

The striker is in the longest goal drought of his career – 719 minutes – and has come under fire for his dry spell.

Headlines in Belgium yesterday mistranslated comments from Sky pundit Jamie Redknapp where he labelled Benteke 'a lion playing like a pussycat' into an unpleasant jibe. But Lambert insisted the Belgian is ready to prove them wrong.

"You want to try and say that to his face," he said. "If he's read it or heard of it – which I'm sure he will if it's in his native country – then I'm sure, I'll ram that down their throat. Not Jamie, but the Belgian papers.

"Confidence is a major thing. If you're confident you'll do things off the cuff without thinking about it.

"Maybe he's thinking too much and he's trying to impress and trying to get it back. But the injury situation is hurting a wee bit."

The boss admitted he may take the striker out of the firing line at Stoke tomorrow because he is still suffering from minor injuries.

"I might need to look at that. I need to get him 100 per cent," he said.

"He always wants to play, he's not in so much pain that he says 'I can't do this'.

"It's not that, it's little things that are hindering the movement he has. "He's having a hard time but he's still carrying a few knocks.

"You have to watch it with any player, it was the same with Gabby, he was playing with an ankle knock.

"We had to look after him. The league's too powerful to go in there not 100 per cent."