"Le nouveau phénomène". - Karim Benzema

EarlyPrototype wrote:Benz made it look so easy, but damn what a finish.

Also if Benz improves his aerial play he would be even more menacing.

It was damn hard! :lol!:
Also, the way he runs at goalkeepers /defenders is very confusing, he is really two-footed

sportsczy wrote:After the collective training today with the France NT, Blanc did the following: Barthez went in goal and Dubuchy + Mathieu sent centering ball after centering ball from the wings... and Benzema was alone working on his air game.

Granted, I'm not expecting him to become Klose lol. But he often looks like he belongs in the special olympics with his air game. At least, he's working on it.

This is good news although I'm very surprised that Mourinho didn't do this already after seeing him waste countless of headers on many important occasions.

Benzema improving his headers is good for France NT, Madrid and Benzema himself, everybody wins.

I hurled a large amount of profanity Benzema's way after those pathetic headers vs Barcelona. He tried his best but had he managed to get one we would have won the super cup IMO.

Glad he's working on it.

Really saying it like it is now...

"We (France NT) are unbeaten in the qualification games... but when we beat Brazil, they say it's the B team as an excuse, England was the C team, then there's the x team (laughs). But we've been unbeaten over the last 14 or 15 games... and still, even in the Stade de France, you sometime feel like you're playing an away fixture. There's no atmosphere there... and if at times things are a little difficult, the crowd immediately goes into a weird mood. Basically, if i score, I'm French... and if i don't score or there are problems, I'm Arab. What the heck does that mean? My parents are french and were born in France. And, yes, i have Algerian blood. That's it."

"Mourinho has been very demanding of me and I'm grateful for it. I never gave up because I always wanted to play for Real Madrid. I was patient because I always knew my time would come. I never thought about leaving. Where else would you want to go when you're at Real Madrid? If Mou wanted me to go he would have told me. He says things to your face. He didn't want to get rif of me and I fought for my spot on the team."

"Mourinho is a great tactician and he hardly makes mistakes. He tries out new things and is successful and wins games with every team he coaches. Sometimes, when we're in the dressing room tunnel, he knows if we're going to play well or if we're going to concede a goal. I don't know what kind of a gift he actually has, but it's amazing."

"Ronaldo Nazario was the greatest. He was fast, technical, creative, opportunist... I watched everything he did since I was a kid. If he was in my team I would sit on the bench just to watch him and If I ever played with him I would always give him the ball. He is unique to me, that's all. I resemble him most in my dribbling skills."

Hum,I was commenting with czy a while ago how his style reminds me of r9(bar the speed and finishing),he agrees too

Ganso wrote:Hum,I was commenting with czy a while ago how his style reminds me of r9(bar the speed and finishing),he agrees too

i remember all the bashing i took when i said benz is the closest player to r9 now in term of styles

Not exactly true Mag... he's just saying the right things to the media. He went and asked Mou point blank if he had a chance to start and Mou gave him a wishy washy answer after the CL tie against Barca. He and Madrid explored some options at the time and then Zidane intervened. He didn't want to leave. But for his career, it was a close thing.

"J'aime jouer en 9,5 car je suis plus libre. J'aimais beaucoup évoluer à ce poste lorsque j'étais à Lyon en compagnie de Fred. J'aime pouvoir jouer sur un côté, me démarquer, participer et créer des espaces"

Translation:

"I like playing the 9.5 a lot. I loved to play this role at Lyon with Fred at my side. I like to start from a wing, get open, participate in the game and open spaces."

This is the reason Benz is trying to lobby to play with Higuain. It's the perfect pairing for both.

Di Maria injured could be a good time to try it, or maybe he will try and implement Sahin and play more closer to a 4 3 3

Do it Mouuuu. Why do we need any new attackers with a line like Cristiano-Higuain-Benzema with Ozil in support? Why wont he abandon his stupid ideas and play them together!?

Mou on Benzema

"I think Benzema has improved all-round, as he is now stronger both physically and mentally,"

"He now understands the game more fully. We all know what his attacking game is like, but he has also improved a lot defensively," he continued. "Now, for me, the real Benzema is playing for Real Madrid.

"He is a player who, as a centre forward, has a level of creativity that I find incredible," he enthused.

"He could be a little more of a predator, though."

Encouraging words.

Still had to hit him with a slight neg at the end to keep him motivated.

ragbirjosh wrote:Mou on Benzema

"I think Benzema has improved all-round, as he is now stronger both physically and mentally,"

"He now understands the game more fully. We all know what his attacking game is like, but he has also improved a lot defensively," he continued. "Now, for me, the real Benzema is playing for Real Madrid.

"He is a player who, as a centre forward, has a level of creativity that I find incredible," he enthused.

"He could be a little more of a predator, though."

Encouraging words.

Still had to hit him with a slight neg at the end to keep him motivated.

Translation: I like you a lot but you're not there yet He is right, I share his opinion 100%

ragbirjosh wrote:Mou on Benzema

"I think Benzema has improved all-round, as he is now stronger both physically and mentally,"

"He now understands the game more fully. We all know what his attacking game is like, but he has also improved a lot defensively," he continued. "Now, for me, the real Benzema is playing for Real Madrid.

"He is a player who, as a centre forward, has a level of creativity that I find incredible," he enthused.

"He could be a little more of a predator, though."

Encouraging words.

Still had to hit him with a slight neg at the end to keep him motivated.

not neg, its the truth, he misses too much on his oppotunities.

You guys do realize that Higuain and Benz are the 2 most efficient scorers in la liga (yes, better than messi) and top 5 in Europe? I get the motivation thing... But saying that he misses too much is kind of interesting.

sportsczy wrote:You guys do realize that Higuain and Benz are the 2 most efficient scorers in la liga (yes, better than messi) and top 5 in Europe? I get the motivation thing... But saying that he misses too much is kind of interesting.

Not you guys but you guy (TMO only) I'll wait until he develops into a complete forward He is WC already but his ceiling is higher
He is like the intelligent guy I know at work. He is new so I teach him all the know-how but what he lacks is taking initiative into his own hands Benz should school CR7 at some point

I agree with both of you

>@Sport- he is clearly an efficent scorer.

>@Babun and TMO - IMO what Mou means by "predator" is not finishing - even the best strikers in the world miss chances - it is his decisiveness.

For example today I watched his goal against united in 08 and I am 100% sure that 10 times out of 10 the Benzema of today would look for a pass in that situation.He just needs to take what is his when it is presented to him -his inability to do so is the main thing that Higuain has over him.

ragbirjosh wrote:I agree with both of you

>@Sport- he is clearly an efficent scorer.

>@Babun and TMO - IMO what Mou means by "predator" is not finishing - even the best strikers in the world miss chances - it is his decisiveness.

For example today I watched his goal against united in 08 and I am 100% sure that 10 times out of 10 the Benzema of today would look for a pass in that situation.He just needs to take what is his when it is presented to him -his inability to do so is the main thing that Higuain has over him.

I wasn't talking about efficiency I meant the same, his goal hunger should be noticable and he should practice headers Once he is complete, you could forget about CR7, I'm not joking

oh cmon u know what i mean, we can point out alot of misses hes had as we can from any player this season, but there are some that he misses badly, due to bad finishing or decision making.

misses against zagreb and lyon away come to mind immediatley.

Everyone misses TMO. We only remember the great goals... but Raul, R9, Hugo Sanchez, etc. all missed plenty of "oh my gosh" balls. I'm not saying benz is as good as those guys at all yet. But it's all about making more than you miss and he's not a poacher either.

But i agree that he hasn't reached his ceiling.

The Madrid One wrote:oh cmon u know what i mean, we can point out alot of misses hes had as we can from any player this season, but there are some that he misses badly, due to bad finishing or decision making.

misses against zagreb and lyon away come to mind immediatley.

Against Barça indeed

The Madrid One wrote:oh cmon u know what i mean, we can point out alot of misses hes had as we can from any player this season, but there are some that he misses badly, due to bad finishing or decision making.

misses against zagreb and lyon away come to mind immediatley.

Bad misses again Lyon? i hope you mean Higuain, because he made one of the worst misses against lyon 2 years ago

That was freakishly bad luck. 99% of the time that ball would have gone in.

sportsczy wrote:Everyone misses TMO. We only remember the great goals... but Raul, R9, Hugo Sanchez, etc. all missed plenty of "oh my gosh" balls. I'm not saying benz is as good as those guys at all yet. But it's all about making more than you miss and he's not a poacher either.

But i agree that he hasn't reached his ceiling.

im not saying anything to radical imo, im just saying he has to improve, ive seen him miss in opportunities in which someone with as good finishing as higuain would have scored, mou saying that he has to be more vicious, brought that to mind, dont tell me you consider him a very clinical finisher.. if you do then id have to disagree.

can also work on his aerial ability, but everyone knows that.

@ freeza, watch my benzema videos on my channel, you will see quite a few wasted chances

i will only believe benz is back to his complete best, once he start taking long range shots again and taking on defenders more, really dictating the game like his lyon days

i know that hard with cr around but it can be seen that he is making an effort to have more of a presence on the field now, he just needs the signal to unshackle himself and take some risks, i think mou is giving him that signal now

chad4401 wrote:i will only believe benz is back to his complete best, once he start taking long range shots again and taking on defenders more, really dictating the game like his lyon days

i know that hard with cr around but it can be seen that he is making an effort to have more of a presence on the field now, he just needs the signal to unshackle himself and take some risks, i think mou is giving him that signal now

from some of his videos ive seen of him from his lyon days, he really used to score very nice, out of angle out of the box goals frequently, it was signature


wanna see that... latest similar thing to that ive seen was that nice goal against albania