The 21-year-old is already creating a favourable impression after joining Villa from Genk for £7million in the summer and kept Sir Alex Ferguson's backline busy on Saturday.
United came from behind to win the Villa Park clash 3-2 but Lambert took plenty of positives from Benteke's display.
The manager said: "I think he's not just a strong player, his technique is terrific and for someone who is just 21 he can be anything he wants.
"Christian keeps going. He's a brilliant guy as well. His character is terrific but my God, he's a proper number nine. He did give the United centre-halves a run for their money."
Villa are 17th in the Premier League but Lambert believes their performance against United will inspire confidence in his young side.
"The players can take great confidence from leading against Manchester United," he said.
"It will make them grow a bit. You can see they are a young side but you wouldn't have thought that the way they played.
"They played with a lot of maturity, a lot of discipline in their game and I can't fault them for the way they went about it."
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