CL R16: Real Madrid - Paris Saint Germain

Definitely not as good as Ronaldo, at all. I would gladly take Ronaldo over Benzema and yes, I mean the post 2002 Ronaldo. As for the ten years argument, um, 2008 - 2018, sure, Big Ben can make a genuine claim for the best n9 we had over that time period. He definitely last the longest so he'll have the numbers to back it up.

Other than his first year and the past year and a half, Benzema was one of the best 9s in the world, no question. People hated on him because they wanted Higuain (although Benzema was clearly better once Higuain got injured)... and his personality both on and off the pitch made him seem careless and aloof.

But at the end of the day, he really did put a good shift in there for Real Madrid. We just let it last a year or two too much. Strikers don't get better with age... no football player does. As soon as you see an aging player look average, you need to move on and quickly.

sportsczy wrote:Other than his first year and the past year and a half, Benzema was one of the best 9s in the world, no question. People hated on him because they wanted Higuain (although Benzema was clearly better once Higuain got injured)... and his personality both on and off the pitch made him seem careless and aloof.

But at the end of the day, he really did put a good shift in there for Real Madrid. We just let it last a year or two too much. Strikers don't get better with age... no football player does. As soon as you see an aging player look average, you need to move on and quickly.

Year and a half? Did you think he was one of the best 9s in the world during Rafa’s tenure or Zidane’s first year in charge of the team?

Thimmy wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Other than his first year and the past year and a half, Benzema was one of the best 9s in the world, no question.  People hated on him because they wanted Higuain (although Benzema was clearly better once Higuain got injured)...  and his personality both on and off the pitch made him seem careless and aloof.

But at the end of the day, he really did put a good shift in there for Real Madrid.  We just let it last a year or two too much.  Strikers don't get better with age... no football player does.  As soon as you see an aging player look average, you need to move on and quickly.

Year and a half? Did you think he was one of the best 9s in the world during Rafa’s tenure or Zidane’s first year in charge of the team?

Absolutely no question.  He had 24 league goals and 29 goals/7 assists total that season. Under Rafa, he was actually the best player on the pitch I thought along with Modric. Our tactics were shit overall... and CR didn't like being grounded to give room for Bale and Benzema on the attack... but he played extremely well individually.

If you remove his first season and the last 2, in that 6 year span, he averaged 25 goals and 12 assist with his low being 20 goals/19 assists in Mou's last year... and his high being 32 goals and 13 assists.

That's WC no matter how you feel about him personally.

Any version of the real Ronaldo is surely better than any version of Benzema though Loool, except the fat Ronaldo after he went back to Brazil

BarcaLearning wrote:Any version of the real Ronaldo is surely better than any version of Benzema though Loool, except the fat Ronaldo after he went back to Brazil

His last 2 years at Madrid were very meek... so no there. His first 3 years at Madrid, yes.

Dude was a starter under Pellegrini, Mourinho, Ancelotti and now Zidane. He must be good at something...
He's obviously too " shy " in front of goal for lack of better world but his quality and what he brings on the table , few strikers can match up especially with Cr7 there.

Now he might be past his prime and Real should sell him but that's another story.

I repeat best Madrid n9 for the past 10 years.

Well, he's pretty much been the ONLY n9 in the past 10 years.

He was utter shit his first season, this season and last season.

The years in between have been mixed with great and unconvincing performances.

The problem is he fell off a cliff 2 years ago, and there's 0 hope of redemption, so nice knowing ya Benz, but you're doing more harm than good.

Scoring 20-25 goals in all competitions is not difficult task in this real madrid. Even Morata on scrap minutes got around 17-19 goals, Chicharito too on scraps went to double digits in all competition.

25 goals in la liga itself should be the bench mark for a real Madrid CF.For all of Benzema's 'creative' talks he couldnt even match CR in terms of assists let alone creativity. I have never seen him make a through ball as difficult as Higuain did against Tottenham in last game. When was the last time Benzema dominated a big team in champions league.?

Benzema was, is and will be a easily replaceable player in this team. Benzema is getting some serious free ride to trophies in this team and that is not the standard we should have for a Real Madrid attacker.

It's disingenuous to call him shit/talentless. At best, out of form or in decline. It's precisely because of his talent that he's so frustrating when he doesn't use it, as has been the case for too long now.

Adit wrote:Scoring 20-25 goals in all competitions is not difficult task in this real madrid. Even Morata on scrap minutes got around 17-19 goals, Chicharito too on scraps went to double digits in all competition.

25 goals in la liga itself should be the bench mark for a real Madrid CF.For all of Benzema's 'creative' talks he couldnt even match CR in terms of assists let alone creativity. I have never seen him make a through ball as difficult as Higuain did against Tottenham in last game. When was the last time Benzema dominated a big team in champions league.?

Benzema was, is and will be a easily replaceable player in this team. Benzema is getting some serious free ride to trophies in this team and that is not the standard we should have for a Real Madrid attacker.

In the Real Madrid of the past 2 years where CR has actually taken a step back to allow the team to feed him and others to play? Absolutely. No excuse there.

But before that, you had to be a monster of efficiency to get 25 goals. There just weren't enough shots.

Benz became so passive by necessity playing next to early day CR... that he forgot how to be aggressive, which is what he needed once Zidane took over.

Again, he was extremely good under Rafa. He had 22 goals by February... and then once Zidane took over, he had 6 the rest of the way. 28 goals and 7 assists was a good year regardless. But that was 2 years ago.

Another example and way to show it is, Real chose to sell Higuain and keep Benzema, clearly at the time most ppl agreed with the deal iirc, Higuain was good but werent that consistent, I remember him hitting 4 in one game, but overall considered not as consistent and effective as Benzema. Afterwards Real missed him a bit, but the guys left eventually stepped up and scored enough goals to make up. Not an expert on Real but I think thats pretty much how it was.

BarcaLearning wrote:Another example and way to show it is, Real chose to sell Higuain and keep Benzema, clearly at the time most ppl agreed with the deal iirc, Higuain was good but werent that consistent, I remember him hitting 4 in one game, but overall considered not as consistent and effective as Benzema. Afterwards Real missed him a bit, but the guys left eventually stepped up and scored enough goals to make up. Not an expert on Real but I think thats pretty much how it was.

Most people on here disagreed with that decision when it happened. I should know since I was on the Benzema side of things, at the time. Some were arguing that Flo wanted to keep Benzema over Higuain, purely because the former was a Flo signing, others argued that it was because Benzema was the only player out of the two who managed to score in the Champions League. I also remember someone arguing that Benzema’s link-up play was deemed more valuable than Higuain’s goalscoring, which was assumed to be a more easily replaceable quality. They both left a lot to be desired in the big games. In other words, I think the majority agreed at the time that Benz was thoroughly outperformed by Pipita in the league, both in terms of goalscoring and the effort put into his performances. Higuain was described as a guy who wore his heart on the outside of his shirt, and I know that a lot of people preferred him, and so questions where raised when Benzema’s services were ultimately more valued.

It was a very contraversal decision. As I recall, this GL fan base (I refer only to GL as I don’t believe GL respresent most fans! - certainly not Spanish fans) was very divided. The biggest mistake IMO was the decision that club can’t have 2 decent strikers, which essentially meant Benzema was without internal competition for all these years.

But the reason you probably think most were for Benzema (vs Pepito), is the presence of the very vocal, defend until death no matter how bad he is, of his rampant fans (I.e. Chad, Turok, Sports).

It’s pretty obvious now that Benzema was the wrong choice, but that’s hindsight. I think the second choice of no internal competition was the worst decision.

As to my own opinion, I favoured Pepito, but I also never thought that either of them were top 5 CF. My choice would have been to recruit a Top 5 CF and retain one of them as backup! I have never bought into Benzema being a top CF. Even in his best years, he would go missing for long stetches and even in games when he had an important play / goal such as the key goal in CL last year, he was awful most of the game.

As Thimmy mentioned importantly, Benzema's link up play, and I will add what Ive wanted to say for a long time is how do I put it, his presence? What he does on the pitch is just too often overlooked. Stats doesnt show a lot of things in football. What he does make things tick more for Real and the players around him (obviously Ronaldo the most) are just more effective. If it was for example Higuain instead, or even when you start Asensio, he cant play that role, or Bale, as well as the other backup guys atm. They wont have the same effectiveness u get with Benzema.

Anyway, I guess Im just trying say again is Benzema is criticized so much rightly so this season, but some of them are way over the top, he is far from useless and definitely up there among the best for many years until more recently.

What link up play? Are you referring to the pathetic break of Ronaldo - Benz last week?

Here’s what another GL poster asked and it has yet to be answered!

Adit wrote:Which brings the question of what exactly makes Benzema special.

For all the creativity talks he is underwhelming in assist department. That is hell of a backdrop for a player who is supposed to be a link up master. Nor is he capable of giving defense splitting through balls. He isnt capable of giving superb crosses, isnt a great scorer, not a great header, not really known for pressing like Cavani or Suarez, Not a dribbler.....kindly enlighten me what exactly is he elite at?

Benzema is great at things that can't be quantified by Fifa metrics. I don't want to sound like an old romantic but if we want to be fair we can talk about this.

First of all he had the cleanest first touch of any striker in football, bar Ibra, no one could match him. So when you play a ball to your CF in traffic, and you know he can stop it dead, extend the play and come out with a clean pass then it's huge for the flow of your team.

Excellent passer for a CF, when the ball comes to him he is always passing in the tempo of the receiving player. Very high IQ player, often making the right decision with his choice of play and movement. Also he has always been a willing player when it comes to dropping back and giving the midfielders a passing option.

Off the top of my head these are the few things I can remember. I must say his play off the ball is as good as it gets even for active players. What he sucked at was aggressiveness towards the goal and CF runs, he gave it all up to serve Ronaldo (the little he had that is )

stop blaming ronaldo for his own shortcomings. he was like that the minute he arrived if you remember. it took him some time to settle. honestly benzemas issue is his mentality, it's the weakest in the squad. once he misses a shot, it hurts him so deep he forgets how to shoot completly.

It literally has NOTHING to do with CR. If anything, CR would have helped him because he occupies defenders for him, making it much easier to score. Plus Benzema shines with a player like CR, since his linkup is excellent

Mr Nick09 wrote:Benzema is great at things that can't be quantified by Fifa metrics. I don't want to sound like an old romantic so if we want to be fair we can talk about this.

First of all he had the cleanest first touch of any striker in football, bar Ibra, no one could match him. So when you play a ball to your CF in traffic, and you know he can stop it dead, extend the play and come out with a clean pass then it's huge for the flow of your team.

Excellent passer for a CF, when the ball comes to him he is always passing in the tempo of the receiving player. Very high IQ player, often making the right decision with his choice of play and movement. Also he has always been a willing player when it comes to dropping back and giving the midfielders a passing option.

Off the top of my head these are the few things I can remember. I must say his play of the ball is as good as it gets even for active players. What he sucked act was aggressiveness towards the goal and CF runs, he gave it all up to serve Ronaldo (the little he had that is )

This pretty much sums up everything about Benzema. It's not sensible to compare him and Higuain because they're simply different types of strikers. What should really have happened is the two of them playing together because their qualities compliment each other. The entire basis for the comparison is that we played with a single striker formation, so they were a zero-sum decision.

Excellent passing is hyperbole. When was the last time you saw him do a defense splitting ball like Higuain did against Spurs .. You won't find that much despite playing in the final third. Neymar , Messi, Suarez ,Ibra are excellent passers...Benzemas passing is comparable to Harry Kane..would u call him excellent passer? No. He just gets the basics right that is it.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Benzema is great at things that can't be quantified by Fifa metrics. I don't want to sound like an old romantic but if we want to be fair we can talk about this.

First of all he had the cleanest first touch of any striker in football, bar Ibra, no one could match him. So when you play a ball to your CF in traffic, and you know he can stop it dead, extend the play and come out with a clean pass then it's huge for the flow of your team.

Excellent passer for a CF, when the ball comes to him he is always passing in the tempo of the receiving player. Very high IQ player, often making the right decision with his choice of play and movement. Also he has always been a willing player when it comes to dropping back and giving the midfielders a passing option.

Off the top of my head these are the few things I can remember. I must say his play off the ball is as good as it gets even for active players. What he sucked at was aggressiveness towards the goal and CF runs, he gave it all up to serve Ronaldo (the little he had that is )

I disagree with all of this!

Soft touch, able to stop it dead in traffic! When was the last time you saw him do that? I recall guys like Diego Costa, Ibra, Van Gol do that. Are you not recalling someone else. For that matter, when was the last time you saw Benz make any kind of run to get that pass in traffic?

Passing - Adit has pretty well summed that up.

I feel it’s his isolated moments of a good play that has clouded your memory!