Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has expressed his faith in Christian Benteke despite his long-running goal drought.

Benteke has not enjoyed regular first team football since the appointment of Klopp in October and the Belgian international was below his best when missing some gilt-edged chances in Liverpool's 2-1 FA Cup defeat against West Ham United on Tuesday night.

Benteke is now without a goal since December but despite the former Aston Villa star's terrible run of form, Klopp has full faith that the striker will eventually come good.

The German boss said: "Ask 80 to 90 per cent of all strikers in the world – high-quality, low-quality, no-quality – they will tell you they've had times like this.

"It's like it is and you have to carry on. You have to go on, there's no other situation. All the people in the world want the easy goal, but then the easy goal doesn't help, so you have to play, you have to improve, you have to want to do all the things – that's how it always is. It's no different for Christian.

"But tonight, it was a really good game without the maximum finish, but he did a lot, he worked a lot, so it was a big step – that's good for us and that's good for him."