the fact of the matter is- higuain has been in great scoring form. apart from tonights match benzema has been unimpressive. i dont think its a difficult decision to make when you have one forward who is scoring about a goal a game and another forward who isnt scoring.

benzema will get his chances, he took his tonight. its becoming common knowledge that he needs that push to perform and it showed tonight.

for me, i cant complain. 2 great forwards, if benz wants to leave then so be it, but i thought he was tough enough to handle competition for a starting spot. apparently not.

Come on Deez, Higuain was not good tonight. He's been good in all the games other than the last 2. He doesn't create much (although he made one good pass to CR7 early tonight). So he is going to be measured in goals and efficiency. His efficiency is really bad right now.

One of those players that's going to always be measured with the number of goals he scores. He'll get them. But tonight.... not good.

His only real issue is a mental block in big games. He just misses chances in those. He gets chances though... so he needs to keep at it.

You have to admit that the game changed completely once Benz came on. His goal was great... but his impact was more in opening space and distribution in the final 1/3. We suddenly got ton of clear chances when we had very few before.

You said the same thing over a year ago, Sportz. I have mixed feelings about him, if he is gone then Falcao is a must.

And i couldn't disagree more Deez wth your last post. Higuain has been good for himself. Our offense has been terrible with him on. We've scored 14 goals this season and benz has been on for 10 of them.

His impact is so much more than just goals.

But he's not going to be Madrid's player for too long. He has demanded to start every game and has clashed with Mou as a result. So he's going to leave soon unless Higuain gets benched.

Decision time at Madrid.

vanDEEZ wrote:the fact of the matter is- higuain has been in great scoring form. apart from tonights match benzema has been unimpressive. i dont think its a difficult decision to make when you have one forward who is scoring about a goal a game and another forward who isnt scoring.

benzema will get his chances, he took his tonight. its becoming common knowledge that he needs that push to perform and it showed tonight.

for me, i cant complain. 2 great forwards, if benz wants to leave then so be it, but i thought he was tough enough to handle competition for a starting spot. apparently not.

tonight's match was the most important this season so far for Madrid, and benzema changing the outcome in 5 minutes after being in-field with a great individual performance , means much more than a goal with Granada or some shite team ... The season it's still very early and higuain wasn't impressive at all, i don't think he is your No. 1 Striker...

Nameless wrote:You said the same thing over a year ago, Sportz. I have mixed feelings about him, if he is gone then Falcao is a must.

I said last January that he went to management and asked for a decision to be made... after i said it, he became the #1 starter starting in February.

He was promised the top spot going into the season this year. He was deceived. That's why there's a problem with Mou and he plays little.

Believe what you want... but that's just the way it is. Benz is highly ambitious.

i do agree sports. i mentioned earlier that benz was the game changer.

i still maintain that higuain played well, he was very unlucky not to score early and throughout the game looked dangerous. joe hart did well to deny him.

is it now common procedure to say a forward didnt play well if he didnt score?

and about the whole falcao fascination i get that he is a great forward at his peak but why does everyone keep saying if benzema leaves we HAVE to get falcao. there are other forwards, and personally id take numerous other players over him if we have to replace benzema

Deez I don't disagree with your assessment of performances.

But let me ask you this.

If you were promised a starting role and you stayed in Madrid based on that condition, would you be happy if that was merely a lie. Would you be happy if that promise was broken.I would not take that easily.

Benz sacrifices alot from his game to play here, a forward coming into his prime like him, needs assurances that another year of his career will not be wasted in pointless competition with a player with whom he meshes perfectly.

It was going to be the 4th straight year of this...and I think that within itself is not treating both player with the respect they deserve.

We don't have to get Falcao. If Higuain can translate his usually killer instinct to bigger opponents, we need nobody. It's obvious that Mou is starting him against the big opponents because a) he knows he's losing Benz so b) he needs to develop Higuain in these situations. So far not so good.

If he breaks through, we need nobody. But if he still has this mental block come the end of the season, then we need to go out and get the best big time striker out there that is available... that would be Falcao.

Of course, we may get Ibra in a swap deal with PSG for Benz. But i don't think we want to pay those wages.

tuddor wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:the fact of the matter is- higuain has been in great scoring form. apart from tonights match benzema has been unimpressive. i dont think its a difficult decision to make when you have one forward who is scoring about a goal a game and another forward who isnt scoring.

benzema will get his chances, he took his tonight. its becoming common knowledge that he needs that push to perform and it showed tonight.

for me, i cant complain. 2 great forwards, if benz wants to leave then so be it, but i thought he was tough enough to handle competition for a starting spot. apparently not.

tonight's match was the most important this season so far for Madrid, and benzema changing the outcome in 5 minutes after being in-field with a great individual performance , means much more than a goal with Granada or some shite team ... The season it's still very early and higuain wasn't impressive at all, i don't think he is your No. 1 Striker...

id say the barca matches were more important.. maybe not more important but definitely more of a must win situation. can still top the group without beating city, but we wouldnt have beaten barca had it not been for higuain.

and sports what exactly do you disagree with in my last post? i dont see how you can say anything contrary to the fat that higuain has been in good scoring form (apart from tonight) and benzema has been mostly unimpressive (apart from tonight)

He scored 1 out of 5 or 6 one-on-one situations with the keeper against Barca. That's a bad game to me. We got lucky that it didn't haunt us... and it was lucky for him too.

Le Samourai wrote:Deez I don't disagree with your assessment of performances.

But let me ask you this.

If you were promised a starting role and you stayed in Madrid based on that condition, would you be happy if that was merely a lie. Would you be happy if that promise was broken.I would not take that easily.

Benz sacrifices alot from his game to play here, a forward coming into his prime like him, needs assurances that another year of his career will not be wasted in pointless competition with a player with whom he meshes perfectly.

It was going to be the 4th straight year of this...and I think that within itself is not treating both player with the respect they deserve.

im not going to get into this because there is nothing that anyone besides benzema and mourinho can say to substantialize exactly what was said and what was promised. these are claims and we can speculate on them all we want but in the end we wont know the truth.

also i find it ridiculous to promise anyone outside of ronaldo a 100% sure starting spot. especially when competing with the likes of higuain.

sportsczy wrote:He scored 1 out of 5 or 6 one-on-one situations with the keeper against Barca. That's a bad game to me. We got lucky that it didn't haunt us... and it was lucky for him too.

and benz has scored 1 goal out of all the minutes hes played so far and that was tonight.

vanDEEZ wrote:

sportsczy wrote:He scored 1 out of 5 or 6 one-on-one situations with the keeper against Barca. That's a bad game to me. We got lucky that it didn't haunt us... and it was lucky for him too.

and benz has scored 1 goal out of all the minutes hes played so far and that was tonight.

Ummmm..... he's started 2 times all year and has only taken 11 shots lol. 1 goal and 2 assists on 11 shots when you get no regular time or rhythm is good actually. He is a 9.5 or 10. That's what he plays. He's not a poacher that is predominantly measured on goal statistics. Assists and impact count a lot for him.

On the other hand, Higuain has scored 4 goals and 0 assists on 26 shots in 5 starts. For a poacher, that's bad tbh.

But again, Higuain is getting chances. Just sin't taking them in the big moments so far.

Good goal. Helped by poor defending from a very green player like Nastasic who's been making mistakes all night.

all competitions

hig 33 shots 5 goals 1 assist
benz 21 shots 1 goal 1 assist

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/squad/_/id/86/league/all/real-madrid?cc=5901

free_cat wrote:Good goal. Helped by poor defending from a very green player like Nastasic who's been making mistakes all night.

Thought Nastasic was excellent, though in this particular situation he shouldve been more aggressive.

vanDEEZ wrote:all competitions

hig 33 shots 5 goals 1 assist
benz 21 shots 1 goal 1 assist

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/squad/_/id/86/league/all/real-madrid?cc=5901

Deez my man. I respect you a ton. But you need to compare apples to apples. I looked at Real Madrid in La Liga, Supercopa and CL. You can't compare NTs where Benz has no midfield creativity and Argentina where Higuain is being fed by Messi, Di Maria, Lavezzi, etc.

In the same environment (Real Madrid):
Higuain - 4 goals, 0 assists, 26 shots, 5 starts
Benz - 1 goal, 2 assists, 11 shots, 2 starts

sportsczy wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:all competitions

hig 33 shots 5 goals 1 assist
benz 21 shots 1 goal 1 assist

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/squad/_/id/86/league/all/real-madrid?cc=5901

Deez my man. I respect you a ton. But you need to compare apples to apples. I looked at Real Madrid in La Liga, Supercopa and CL. You can't compare NTs where Benz has no midfield creativity and Argentina where Higuain is being fed by Messi, Di Maria, Lavezzi, etc.

In the same environment:
Higuain - 4 goals, 0 assists, 26 shots, 5 starts
Benz - 1 goal, 2 assists, 11 shots, 2 starts

No midfield creativity when you have Cabaye, Martin, Nasri, and a wing force of Valbuena, Ribery, Menez, HBA.

Benzema was at fault for his Euro flop since he had no sense of discipline or positioning since he was busy dropping deep and doing his worst Platini impression.

Benz screwed it up and it wasn't Blanc's fault.

Arquitecto wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:all competitions

hig 33 shots 5 goals 1 assist
benz 21 shots 1 goal 1 assist

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/squad/_/id/86/league/all/real-madrid?cc=5901

Deez my man. I respect you a ton. But you need to compare apples to apples. I looked at Real Madrid in La Liga, Supercopa and CL. You can't compare NTs where Benz has no midfield creativity and Argentina where Higuain is being fed by Messi, Di Maria, Lavezzi, etc.

In the same environment:
Higuain - 4 goals, 0 assists, 26 shots, 5 starts
Benz - 1 goal, 2 assists, 11 shots, 2 starts

No midfield creativity when you have Cabaye, Martin, Nasri, and a wing force of Valbuena, Ribery, Menez, HBA.

Benzema was at fault for his Euro flop since he had no sense of discipline or positioning since he was busy dropping deep and doing his worst Platini impression.

Benz screwed it up and it wasn't Blanc's fault.

Our midfield was Diarra, Cabaye and Nasri-shat. Nasri-shat was an utter disgrace and Benz was forced to play CM. Menez and Vabuena both sucked horribly to the point where we played Debuchy, a RB, at winger against Spain. Ribery has become a pure winger with Bayern. He can't play a through balll for the life of him these days. Benz actually creates for RIbery.

The only player who had some creativity was Cabaye... and he's no Messi, Di Maria or Lavezzi.

Nowadays, the midfield is Cabaye, Diaby and Mavuba. DIaby was hurt for 2 games and Capoue, a DM/CM; replaced him.

I mean come on Arqi. We have no AM. You can't compare France's creativity with Argentina's lol. We're built to defend and play super conservative tactics mostly. Blanc and DD are two defensive-minded managers.

but my original point still stands that as far as form goes it isnt a difficult decision to pick higuain over benzema, and i understand mourinhos choice in this aspect.

and im still not seeing where this second benzema assist comes from

and the espn stats dont include NT, its just supercopa, la liga and preseason

The way I feel is that we play better with Benz on the pitch, he seems to bring out the best in the attacking players around him.. So just play him and let fate take its course

1 lucky goal and Benzema is goat. where do you know that higuain would not score in that position. di maria did half of the job

why higuain gets more chances than anyone? because he has great acceleration, ant its most important thing for a scorer. Benzema will walk all game and get 1 chance at the end and score because defenders already forgot that he is a striker. With Higuain you will get twice more chances to score

Screw benz. Messi aside, there are several other players who deserve to win it before him. I assume this is just a kneejerk for his goal today and nothing more than that.

When he flops, he flops hard....and that happens more often that not.

Higuain was poor tonight. You can make good runs all night long, but if you don't score then its all for nothing lol.