Belgium boss Roberto Martinez has suggested that Crystal Palace's Christian Benteke is not at fault for his poor return in front of goal in the Premier League this season.

Benteke has netted just twice in 26 appearances, and the forward squandered more opportunities to find the back of the net in Palace's 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.

However, Martinez - who works with Benteke on the international scene - has claimed that the 27-year-old would have a better scoring record if his Palace teammates had created more chances for him throughout the campaign.

On Goals On Sunday, the 44-year-old said: "You want a striker to be there for those chances. I was very pleased with his performance, he was a real focal point for Crystal Palace, in the first half Liverpool couldn't cope with him.

"Christian Benteke won every aerial ball and when you use him in the right way he's very efficient. The problem is if Christian Benteke had those two chances in every game they played, he would score goals.

"I don't think the problem is scoring, it's the team creating those chances, if they create a similar amount of chances that they created [against Liverpool] from now until the end of the season, you'll see Christian Benteke is a goalscorer."

Benteke is likely to feature in Belgium's squad for the World Cup in the summer.