Olivier Giroud

i swear this forum is unbelievable, freaking suarez can be top 3 in the world ffs, but benzema is step above giroud..., when suarez himself isn't even better than benz. just give the guy his due, he is a lot better than people like to give him credit for, giroud is no where near benzema just like a lot of other overhyped cf in footy

Suarez > Benz > Giroud

Why is Higuain being mentioned in a discussion about French players?

Abramovich wrote:Suarez > Benz > Giroud

Lex wrote:Why is Higuain being mentioned in a discussion about French players?

born in France .
of french Basque descent .

Yeah but c'mon. He's for all intents and purposes Argentine. Had a cup of coffee in France, then went to Argentina for 27 years

obviously BC was joking when he put him in there .

but Chad is right though, and i think the clasico made it abundantly clear. Benzema and Suarez are the same level of players, but they have had different careers, different influences, so they developed into different players. Suarez had to carry liverpool playing a traditional CF role, so developed a scoring edge. Benzema has had to become an enabler for CR for years, so he became more of a playmaker. They have different styles, it's that simple, yet playing at the same levels of football.

if you think Giroud is on the same level as benzema you are sniffing crack cocaine.

Please put the blinkers away, folks. Suarez, in terms of football, is superior to Benzema. Maybe not by much, but he is.

Anyway, back to Giroud

Benzema reminds me of van Basten a bit although VB had RG acting as a SS for him. In terms of team play Benzema is a phenomena. He would suit our current united team perfectly tbh. Giroud is nowhere near that level.

Lex wrote:Please put the blinkers away, folks. Suarez, in terms of football, is superior to Benzema. Maybe not by much, but he is.

Anyway, back to Giroud

i dont believe that to be true. anyway, it's fair for each to have their opinion

Suarez is a game changer (as proved in El Clasico) I don't think that, roles changed, Benzema would be able to control that lofted through ball well enough to finish it the way Suarez did.

Don't get me wrong, I still think Suarez is a piece of poo but, in terms of football, he's on another level

I think Suarez > Benzema for sure, but why is Giroud being compared to Benzema? He's not close IMO.

you are telling me that BEnzema doesnt have the first touch to bring that ball down and to finish? again disagree.

another level? make up your mind. one line you say there isnt much between them, another line you say he is on another level

I agree with Lex, they're both great footballers in their own respective rights. The gap is minimal for me, but Suarez edges out. Put it this way, i'd prefer to have an on form Suarez, not because an on form Benz is necessarily inferior but the fact that Suarez can be a deadly game-changer, he can easily tip the scales of a match. However, depending on the setup of the team you deploy, in some cases it might be better to have Benzema.

Not much between them but Suarez is on one level and Benzema is on another, lower level. Suarez just has more in his locker

El Cujo wrote:why is Giroud being compared to Benzema?

Because he's got more goals this season than all your strikers combined?

Luisito had one clear chance at goal after a long-ball from Dani Alves.
Benzema had one clear chance at goal after a through-ball from Cristiano Ronaldo.

One player scored the winner. The other missed.
One player is an elite striker. The other isn't.

Pippo wrote:Luisito had one clear chance at goal after a long-ball from Dani Alves.
Benzema had one clear chance at goal after a through-ball from Cristiano Ronaldo.

One player scored the winner. The other missed.
One player is an elite striker. The other isn't.

Are you implying the metric for elite or not is whether the guy scores a certain opportunity or not, chosen by you, irrelevant of how many other opportunities he missed or did not miss?

Pretty lazy.

Does being a psycho who gets banned for almost half a season have any impact on being elite?

It's just an example. Luisito is a better goalscorer, playmaker, and dribbler. He is better at both Club and NT. There are two criticisms of him: big games at club level, discipline. The first criticism is now useless after not even one season at Barcelona. The second criticism is still applicable.

Is Luisito on "another level" compared to Benzema? No, I do not think so. Is Luisito better? Of course.

I consider Suarez, Benzema and Lewandowski to be of a very similar level and type of player, with Suarez being the best of the bunch and Lewa being the worst...but all three being near the very top of the CF tier.

Lex wrote:Because he's got more goals this season than all your strikers combined?

One, that's not even true (Sterling 10, Sturridge 5, Balotelli 4, Lambert 3 and Giroud 17) but also I don't see how that's relevant to him being near Benzema's level?

Pippo if the only criteria for being elite was finishing Benzema would be miles better than Suarez. He's missed buckets of sitters this season with Barca and finishing has never been his strongest suit to begin with.

In terms of all round game as center forwards I'd say it heavily depends on the system. Benzema would be doing better than Suarez at Barca IMO, but he wouldn't have been able to do what Suarez did at Liverpool last season.

Giroud plays for Liverpool?

Pippo wrote:It's just an example. Luisito is a better goalscorer, playmaker, and dribbler. He is better at both Club and NT. There are two criticisms of him: big games at club level, discipline. The first criticism is now useless after not even one season at Barcelona. The second criticism is still applicable.

Is Luisito on "another level" compared to Benzema? No, I do not think so. Is Luisito better? Of course.

Not sure i agree here, Benzema playmaking wise is probably only second to Ibra among CFs. Suarez is better at the other two skillsets you mentioned though.

Although this is the Giroud thread so.....

Pippo wrote:It's just an example. Luisito is a better goalscorer, playmaker, and dribbler. He is better at both Club and NT. There are two criticisms of him: big games at club level, discipline. The first criticism is now useless after not even one season at Barcelona. The second criticism is still applicable.

Is Luisito on "another level" compared to Benzema? No, I do not think so. Is Luisito better? Of course.

Fair enough. For me personally though, how great they both are is more meaningful than how little the one may be better than the other.
Benzema deserves some respect.

And i disagree with the "Benz not being able to do the same thing as Suarez" premise... when he was given the chance at Lyon, he in fact did lead the attack like an elite striker and all by the age of 21. He had 32 goals at the age of 20 for Lyon while being the main guy... took them to the CL quarters and scored 4 CL goals for them in 7 games. He had similar years at the age of 19 and 21 for them too.

As you muppets finally are realizing, it's a different game on an elite team... neither Benzema or Suarez are the main features of their teams. They need to fit in. How has Benz done? Struggled as a 21 year-old in his first year at Madrid... but since then, he's averaged 25 goals/12 assists PER SEASON. That's right.... that's what he's given every year despite just being a kid and dealing with all the BS at Madrid. This year? He's on 21 goals and 11 assists... so right on par.

World cup? 3 goals and 2 assists in 5 games.

Guy is just class. He can play the 9 or 10 with equal ease and is monstrously consistent.

I'd take him over Suarez. Why? You know exactly what you're going to get from Benz year in and year out and he is the most well-rounded CF in the world now that Ibra has dropped off... he can do it all now that he's even made his air game acceptable. You're not going to get 40 goals a season or a guy that's going to dribble 4 guys to score a goal... but you're going to get a guy that guarantees you 25-30 goals and 10-15 assists per season, who plays very unselfishly and will always make his teammates better. If you feature him though, he will push his goal totals to 30-35 goals and still get you around 10 assists.

Very unique.