Crimson wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Actually no. Higuain came on right after the goal in CR7's goal in the first leg (http://espnfc.com/uk/en/report/352088/report.html?soccernet=true&cc=5739). Higuain was on in the goal in the second leg. And Higuain was playing when Madrid played worst or similar opponents than Granada.

Bottom line is that CR7 exploded in goalscoring the past 2 seasons when Benzema was playing the most. This season, CR7 has started the season relatively slowly compared to his pace of the last 2 years and Benzema has played less.

Ok thenn so how was Ronaldo scoring a goal from a corner influenced by Benzema being on the pitch lmao

Until Benz picks up his form he should not be on the pitch end of.

Because CR7 acts as a CF target on those occasions where he acts more as a wing striker with Higuain. His runs are not the same.

You guys are the ones trying to prove his worth by goalscoring stats without conisdering any other contributing factor. I don't think it's unreasonable then to point out that CR7 scores more with Benz on the pitch statistically.

And btw, every time there' s Euro, the European players start slower and the South American players have a distinct advantage early in the season. It has to do with being tired and have 1 less month of preseason. Things start to even out usually around October sometime.

He created the away goal against Bayern TBF.

In the match against Barca he really didn't do anything but run and push defenses, which I think was stupid of him.

I don't want to spend too much time on this because there are cases of convenient memory on this thread.

Higuain is great... i agree. Benwema is just as great, much more imo... that's also undeniable (not the "imo" part)

And dishing out 15 assists as a CF and making deeper runs WHILE CR7 attacks the box would undoubtedly help CR7 score more. You can't have everyone in the box. It makes the defensive cover much easier.

halamadrid2 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:You do realize that Benz had 3 goals and 1 assist in 5 games against Barca last year. Just ask Barca fans on here if they would prefer to face Benz or Higuain. He played big when he had to.

big when he had to??? where was he against Barca second leg in the league and against Bayern straight afterwards, not discrediting him in any shape or form but to say Ronaldo benefits by haing Benz on is just pure false

And i can tell you one thing, and thats Barca fans hate Higuain being on the pitch more than Benzema, Higuain hurts their back line with his off the ball movement while Benzema starts from deep

I think you are wrong here mate. He actually does benefit simply because they are a good match up in styles.

Ronaldo plays as a wing scorer that makes diagonal runs and eats up whatever space you leave ahead of him. Whenever Benzema is dropping back to collect the ball or moving wide, Ronaldo occupies the box and finds himself in good scoring positions. Not to mention that Benzema is a pretty good assist man.

He does benefit from having benz on the pitch.

As for their roles vs barca, i think at a time when it was harder for us to play the catalans, Benzema's ability to hold the ball was a big help for us. It used to make us more confident about our possession periods and we benefited overall. Now that we are more comfortable as a group, we are more brutal when we attack, even Khedira looks better on the ball lol. So it makes sense that a more direct forward like Higgy is shining now.

halamadrid2 wrote:Our Spanish players who had the least rest are amongst the ones who are most in shape, so are the Portuguese bar Ronaldo

Even Modric with no preseason has looked great so far

Because they play every minute whether on form or not. Benz is in the best shape of his life. He just hasn't had enough minutes to find his rhythm. He's not a good bench player due to his style.

halamadrid2 wrote:CF's job is scoring not assisting if he wants to assist so much, then by all means give up the CF to somebody whos job description is scoring and not assisting

in a perfect world, you want all your players to do both scoring and passing, so shooting down a player because he assists is not fair by any means.

What disappoints me about Benzema right now is that he is not working harder to score more, or to be a more dangerous striker. Now i am hearing from the specialized press in france that he doesnt want to be a pure n9, he wants to be a false 9 or whatever.

We would benefit from having someone who understands both aspect of the game, benzema seems like he is moving away from that.

halamadrid2 wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:He created the away goal against Bayern TBF.

In the match against Barca he played like Higuain usually does, which I'm not gonna lie, surprised me and I didn't think it was a great approach,

I would actually give all that credit to Ronaldo for keeping the ball in play and assisting Ozil... i don't exactly know what Benzema was thinking did he want to shoot or cross??

Come on Hala.

He split the defense open only for Ronaldo to miss a sitter then got it back and played it far post for Ronaldo but Ronaldo didn't run in to tap it in like he normally does so he had to keep it in play instead.

sportsczy wrote:

Crimson wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Actually no. Higuain came on right after the goal in CR7's goal in the first leg (http://espnfc.com/uk/en/report/352088/report.html?soccernet=true&cc=5739). Higuain was on in the goal in the second leg. And Higuain was playing when Madrid played worst or similar opponents than Granada.

Bottom line is that CR7 exploded in goalscoring the past 2 seasons when Benzema was playing the most. This season, CR7 has started the season relatively slowly compared to his pace of the last 2 years and Benzema has played less.

Ok thenn so how was Ronaldo scoring a goal from a corner influenced by Benzema being on the pitch lmao

Until Benz picks up his form he should not be on the pitch end of.

Because CR7 acts as a CF target on those occasions where he acts more as a wing striker with Higuain. His runs are not the same.

You guys are the ones trying to prove his worth by goalscoring stats without conisdering any other contributing factor. I don't think it's unreasonable then to point out that CR7 scores more with Benz on the pitch statistically.

And btw, every time there' s Euro, the European players start slower and the South American players have a distinct advantage early in the season. It has to do with being tired and have 1 less month of preseason. Things start to even out usually around October sometime.

Majority of other European stars are playing fine, Copa did not cause any problems more than normal for majority of SA players last season.

Just because Benzema played well for 6 months at Real Madrid out of his entire time here is not a reason he should be starting for us. Even in those 6 months he failed to really perform when it counted.

Benzema is in no way a CF, he seems to makes the easiest chances to score look very hard. He is a much better player outside the box moving the play but that's not what Real Madrid needs.

Our best performance against Barcelona, against any team of quality in a very very long time came when Higuain was on the pitch not Benzema.

if you asked Barcelona fans atm I am pretty sure they would be much more afraid of Higuain than Benzema.

Anyways, as expected, I see what this has turned into. I'm out, continue to live in your Harry Potter world.

Crimson lol.

He's leaving soon enough you need not continue with the haterade.

halamadrid2 wrote:
In fact i dont mind a CF sticking to only scoring because there aren't many or any strikers in the world who can do both, for Benzema if he wants to do both he has to find a peaceful club where he doesn't get criticized after 2 games without scoring, i think he is capable but it will take time... he hasn't improved his heading tho because he got the perfect oppurtunity against Granada to score his first(??) header for us and he missed the whole target, improve that first because that asset is important especially in our team

I dont mind it myself in general, that's what most teams need. But most teams dont have a super box conqueering outside striker like Ronaldo. Even you has to admit that style is better suited for us, thing is, like you said, Benzema can make easy chances look very hard. And he is refusing to learn traditional poaching skills like normal strikers do, he is consistently dropping deep to touch the ball as if his life depended on it. That's why i am beefing with him now, it's not serving us if he is not a potent and alive goal threat. He makes Cbs time very simple nowadays, and it's not benefiting madrid.

halamadrid2 wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:Come on Hala.

He split the defense open only for Ronaldo to miss a sitter then got it back and played it far post for Ronaldo but Ronaldo didn't run in to tap it in like he normally does so he had to keep it in play instead.

his cross to the far post looked completely not like a normal cross to me which is why i thought i'd give Ronaldo all the credit, but after seeing it again Benzema deserves more praise as well for what he did...

hala madrid admitting he was wrong?

the fck am i reading

Our forwards were not the reason we took the game from Barca. First time in forever that our midfield actually controlled long stretches of the game. We usually have our forwards winding up playing in the midfield against Barca. But this year, our midfield is holding its own and pushing our forwards to where they're supposed to be.

Higuain is playing great. But there's no reason to bash on Benz to make yourselves feel better about Higuain. They actually should not be compared imo. They can't be more different. Madrid is the only club in the world imo where they wouldn't be playing together.

I love Higuain but Benzema is a better player

However, at Benzemas current state, Higuain is better

Benzema has completly forgot how to attack the box and until he starts doing that, Higuain is better imo

Ninis wrote:

Dnmac4 wrote:Oh and hey Ninis, what's with the Holocaust picture from the movie "Boy with the stripped Pajamas?

Why in the world would you have that as your picture on a football website, especially that picture from the movie?

BTW, this isn't an attack on you or anything it just looks wildly out of place and I'm wondering if I missed something or just what the deal is because you have been a decent poster and it's just well a Holocaust picture.

yeah seems odd

its just that i saw the movie recently and very much liked it
was looking for this spesific picture in the first place cause it shows a powerful moment from a perfect angle, more of it for the moment it self and the difference between the 2 lifes that werent equally fair than the whole movie's story

would be more normal if it was from a popular "badass" or funny movie rather than a depressing one and related to history "violence" in this case , but i am into the drama thing, and i tend to share what i find interesting, even if it is in a wrong place for it, like this : |
changed now though

No worries, I get where your coming from as I'm a History major and like Drama's as well and think it's a great Holocaust movie with out needing the over the top violence so I think the movie is somewhat underrated as in people not seeing it not what the critics said as they liked it.

And you have every right to put on your profile what ever you want. I wasn't saying take it down, I was just wondering why you had it up because there are some people on this site that might put it up for stupid purposes.

But I like your reasoning and yea it probably would be different if it was some badass from a movie like Patrick Bateman (who is awesome) or something like that, but that's the world we live in.

Thanks for the explanation.

You can play both, you only have to drop Oezil, ina 4'2'3'1 or 4-4-1-1.

I feel like Higgy's ceiling for Argentina is Crespo-level, which is not bad at all.

In my not so humble opinion Higuain seems to cause Barcelona far more trouble then Benzema does. Aside from his decent stats against Barca, in truth Benz barely troubles them and most of the time is invisible against. The goals that came were mostly in the Supercopa if I am correct and 1 was capitalized on by a mistake in the 1st El Classico at Bernebeu last year. Aside from that I have seldom seen him trouble the Catalan defence as he almost looks out of his depth there. Higuain on the other hand is a far more intelligent striker given his intelligent position and superbly timed runs which exploit Barca's unnecessarily high line. The overall impact on Higuian on the pitch against Barca to me, has just been better then when Benzema is on against them.


Yes Benzema is better at linking up and team play yet lets not forget both are responsible for scoring and Higuian does it better when given the chance and more efficiently. Benzema is more complete yet I'm finding this skill comparison to him and Higuain merely an excuse for Benzema's shortcomings when it comes to finishing.

For France there is no excuse as the midfield was indeed good enough. Benzema did well to drop deep and assist the midfield yet since he has this idea that he is Platini he rarely was in the box when he clearly should have been and mostly hindered Blanc's system by dropping deep when he didn't need to. Poor midfield? Ask Ibra how to do it like he has been doing half of his career. His time at Ajax, Inter, Milan and of course Sweden when he doesn't seem to need even a semi-decent midfield to dominate and control games. Simply put he finds the right balance between playmaking and scoring when needed. There is no excuse for Benzema's Euro failure.

That being said I still envision that Benz and Higgy can play together. Benz is quite obviously a more skilled player than CR in most aspects as Benz should be adapted to a False 9 role which supports Higuian in an equally free role to exploit open spaces as I can give a few examples of how and when this has worked. CR to continue in his usual Left inside forward role.

Conclusively I hope Higgy gets more time with Madrid as he truly is a special player and certainly deserves more then what Mou allows him. He also should join the Basque Selekzioa while he's at it.

Dnmac4 wrote:I have always thought Higgy is a great player and given the right playing time he could challenge any front man in the world for goals except Messi of course.

I LOVE the fact that he's a traditional striker always looking for goal and doesn't fool around with the ball or waste possession trying to be flashy not to mention I think his speed is extremely underrated.

I have always thought he's twice the striker Benz is although Benz has some other skills and thats great and everything but IMO Madrid already have those other skills in abundance so I don't know why he get's the nod over Higgy but who am I to question Mou.

And to the poster who said he's inconsistent, it's his playing time that's inconsistent, not him. When he plays he produces usually with minimal touches.

I will say he is one of the most efficient players in the world.

As you can see from my first post in this thread above I like Higgy a ton and even as a Barca fan I can't help but like him for what ever reason, I can't really figure it out.

I do like Argentina as well but I don't like Di Maria so it's not that.

What I do know is I am way more terrified when we play Real when Higgy is on the pitch not Benz.

My main point for this post is that a lot of Madrid fans are going back and forth on who Ronaldo plays best with and whoi he likes to play with.

Correct me if I'm wrong which I know I'm not, when Ronaldo got to Madrid there was a big rift between Ronaldo and Higgy and they flat out didn't like each other to the point that a couple times both of them didn't run over and celebrate goals the other scored. Plus there was bickering off the field in the locker room arguing over shots each other took when they should have passed to the other one.

For what it's worth I believe this was when Pelligrini was coach.

I for one think Ronaldo likes playing with Benzema more because to a certain extent he knows his place and is a better passer then Higgy but Higgy in my mind is a much better goal scorer and player.

I don't know what the stats are and don't really care but IMO I don't think Higgy and Ronaldo like each other very much and I don't think they like playing with each other as Benz doesn't mind being Ronaldo's side kick plus he's very talented and Higgy is out there to do his job and put the ball in the net and not worry about passing to Ronaldo.

IMO, that is the reason the team seems to flow better with Ronaldo and Benz on the field together, take it for what it's worth.

BTW, this is not a shot at any of the players I named in the post and certainly not Ronaldo. I just think people forget the frosty relationship between Higgy and Ronaldo and stuff like that just doesn't go away.

Still remember when Higuain had scored more than him and coming down to the end of that season Ronaldo went nuclear with the shot jacking. He had Higuian playing on the left wing creating goals for him for a while lol.

Sad thing is we could've won the league that year and we played brilliantly in both Classicos only to be let down by poor finishing.We had 96 points in the end.

Pelle is remembered alot for the Alcorcon and Lyon failures, but I wanted to keep him.

Oh well.

The only season Higuain was our top scorer was 08-09. Ronaldo arrived in 09.