Alan Shearer believes that new Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood needs to restore confidence to Christian Benteke and make him "horrible to play against" again.

The West Midlands outfit, 18th in the Premier League table, replaced former boss Paul Lambert with Sherwood on Saturday.

Shearer told BBC Sport: "I know Tim Sherwood very well. He will bring energy and an honesty to Aston Villa. We saw at Spurs that he is not afraid to ruffle feathers and upset people, and that's what this club needs.

"He'll go in and tell people exactly what he wants. A big plus point is that he got the best out of Emmanuel Adebayor at Spurs - and he has to do the same at Villa with Christian Benteke.

"Benteke has had injuries and his confidence looks very low. We don't know if he fell out with Paul Lambert but he has so much ability. He has to be horrible to play against, and he has to start bullying defenders again."

Benteke has scored just two Premier League goals this season after recovering from an Achilles problem.