It has been well documented that Christian Benteke has struggled for form in recent years.

The once-prolific Belgian striker has netted just five goals in his last 67 games in all competitions for Crystal Palace, finding the back of the net on just one occasion this season, the same as his total from the previous campaign.

Incidentally, his struggles in front of the sticks have come ever since Roy Hodgson stepped through the door early on in the 2017/18 season - he was appointed as Frank de Boer's replacement in September 2017.

Contrastingly, under Sam Allardyce, the former Liverpool striker scored 17 goals in one campaign, where his physicality and aerial dominance were utilised brilliantly.

Speaking before the Eagles' 3-1 defeat to Everton last time out, Allardyce revealed on BT Sport (via Football London) how he got the best out of the 29-year-old forward.

"I wanted Wilfried Zaha, Andros Townsend and the full-backs to drop the ball into the box for him as quick as they could, not so much with a whipped in ball, more with a standing up ball on the far post. I told Christian to get in and around that area."

In light of those comments, we think Hodgson should set his side up in this fashion to get the best out of Benteke.

You may notice that James McArthur isn't in this side, for a start.

That is because the Scottish midfielder, as good as he is, is perhaps not as defensively dominant in terms of physique when compared to the 6 foot 1 Luka Milivojevic and the 6 foot 2 Cheikhou Kouyate - McArthur is just 5 foot 8.

Seeing as the former Wigan man has started 25 Premier League games for the Eagles this season, dropping him would obviously be a big deal - however, it is necessary for this system to work.

If Hodgson is to switch to 4-4-2 - something that we have rarely seen from the south Londoners this season having used that formation on just three occasions - then a towering, solid defensive-midfield pairing will be a necessity so that Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend can focus on bombing forward and supplying Benteke with crosses, as Allardyce alludes to.

Significantly, Crystal Palace only cross the ball 15 times per game on average in the Premier League this season, which is the joint second-fewest amount in England's top-flight - only Norwich have delivered less crosses.

Perhaps the biggest statistic which should convince Hodgson to utilise this tactic is this.

As things stand, Benteke has scored the third-most headed goals in Premier League history with 26 to his name - only Peter Crouch and Olivier Giroud have netted more with their head.

Calling Premier League experts ONLY: Which year were these top flight clubs formed?

To end the £27m man's woes, Hodgson simply has to take heed of Allardyce's comments, a man whose methods actually yielded an impressive output from the big Belgian. 

In other news, Christian Benteke has sent a message to this £130m star on Instagram...