How You Like Me Now? - The Karim Benzema Thread

I am a fanboy, because I refuse to criticise a player and demand him be sold after a draw? The same way I defended Ronaldo when he had a stinker against Barca and Higuain against Lyon. I know when he ********s up and realise he needs to score goals for the team, it is his job. But I don't go overboard when a player misses a chance when we lose or draw a game.

He isn't perfect, but he is one of the best strikers in the world atm and has a goals to game ration in the CL better than Messi and Raul. Every time we drop points its the same sarcastic comments "Benzema's game is too complicated for this team, he has cost us points sell him!!!". You obviously have a deep rooted hatred for him, and you use every bad performance to criticise him, and blame him for us dropping points. Yet I don't see you praise him when he performs well and gets us points. I also don't see any posts when Ronaldo and Higuain ******** up and we drop points.

 

He's better under stress. Against APOEL, a victory was pretty much a given. In league competition, I expect him to become crucial when we're in dire need to get points not to lose the title. So far the guy feels he can relax and losing a chance won't be the end of the world, he's much more likely to spoil it.

Yeah, he needs to change that. ASAP.

 

I agree he's had a few shocking misses lately and all of them are of the "poacher goal" type. That is clearly a part of his game he needs to improve. But realize that if he is able to do that, which he still has plenty of time to do in his career, the rest of his game is much more developed than that of all the other strikers you named that probably would score that goal (Rooney, Gomez, Huntelaar). If he is able to get that killer instinct and score the poacher goals regularly, he will be arguably the best striker in the world.

Like I said, he's in a rough patch. He still has 20+ goals for us this year. Absurd to say we need to sell him. Why don't you blame Ronaldo for falling over on that breakaway wen he should have been able to stay up and score? Sure, he got nicked a little on his heel, but watch the replay and honestly tell me that caused him to fall over the way he did. Not a chance. He could have stayed up, rounded the keeper, and got us 3 points. Why don't we have to sell him as well?

 

The thing is, most of the other players you mention in his age bracket do not "thrive and lead their teams." Kun and Rooney you can make the argument for (and of course, Midget). You make it seem like Benzema is the only one in this age group with flaws of any sort, and that he is far and away the worst one. But he scores goals the others are uncapable of. They might put away some of the sitters that Benz should (and in the future, probably will do with more consistency), but Benz's class is unmistakable. Bringing in a third striker to take away minutes will not help if we are trying to improve Benzema's game.

As it stands, he is a world class striker that can improve the poaching aspect of his game. We do not need to wait for him to "develop."

 

I thought we already had a dependable finisher in Higuain? If there is a problem with Benzema, and I dont think there is (or at least not as much as you are making it to be), I trust Mourinho to do the right thing and start Pipita.

 

The thing is Benzema and Ronaldo are always going to be first choice when a player is in position to score, they average the most shots per game in Madrid, Ronaldo more so because of his shots outside the box and his set pieces.

Higuain seems to have to fight to get a decent ball inside the box every game he plays, yet he is still keeping up in terms of scoring.

In LigaBBVA alone Benzema averages 3 shots per game to Higuains 1.9, in the UCL that number is 3.9 to 1.1 in favor of Benz again. That is an astronomical difference. Especially when you consider Falcao averages 3.9, Soldado 2.6 and Llorente with 2.6 as well in LigaBBVA, all get more shots than Higuain but are all scoring alot less. Consider the fact we have some of the best creative players in the world and we are one of the best teams in the world it's pretty poor that Higuain rarely receives or gets the attention he deserves inside the box, but when he does he usually finishes it.

If we set Higuain up at the top of the box and actually had players feed him the ball his numbers would be astronomical imo.

In the UCL Higuains shots per game are even behind that of Alonso atm lmao and in La Liga they are behind not only Ronaldo and Benz but Di Maria too.

People seem to brush off Higuain very quickly and point to Benz being a better player overall, but at the end of the day if we have players like Di Maria, Alonso, Sahin, Ozil and Kaka I would rather have a pure striker up at the top of the box and put faith and chances in him to score.

Just think what Higuain could do with the kind of service other pure strikers receive.....

 

I keep telling ya'll, the problem isn't Higuain or Benzema...it's Ronaldo. Sell him and all these issues will disappear, I guarantee it

 

Same could be said for how many of our players?

You don't like the guy. You go apeshit attack mode when he fuucks up. Same story, nothing to see here folks.

 

It's easy to understand, really: league play is, until the very last weeks, not a matter of life and death.

Play-offs during a Cup or the Champs League is a high-stress situation.

Benz is a relaxed type of guy. A young guy who chills with his homies playing video games and when surprised by news types, he'll say as little as possible and gets out of it with a smile.

He's no deep thinker, no guy to seem concerned with pure perfection, etc.

The plus of that is that when a game is a high-stress situation, like a Champs League fixture, and everybody is peeing in their pants around him, Karim keeps a degree of coolness that allows him to score chances others wouldn't even create.

The minus is that when the game is not so vital and there is a future chance to fix any bug ups, he's likely to make big mistakes, due to lack of focus.

Both things may come as a pair. If you're cool, then in situations of high stress in the job you're the man to have, but the day-to-day routine can make of you a less-than-stellar performer.

 

What are you trying to say here? That we can only have flawless players on the roster? We can't start anyone who has room for improvement in his game? Stupid.

We have a young squad for a reason. We want a squad that can grow together, improve together, and stay together for many years. Mistakes come with the territory. Face it, every single player on the team can improve many aspects of their games. It is in every player's benefit to get minutes to improve those aspects. Benz is the better striker option we have right now, that's why he is first choice. He also has the potential to become one of the best strikers in the world (if he isn't already) if we keep giving him minutes and he develops the poacher's touch like many other top strikers have. You are acting as if, just because he isn't lethal on scoring tap-ins (albeit, that is one key area where most strikers should be) that we need to send him off on loan somewhere to develop, and that just isn't the case.

Let me just put it this way: if we were to put him up on the transfer market this summer, I am confident there would be no shortage of 40+ ME bids for him.

 

I've NEVER suggested such a thing. No idea if someone else in this thread is doing so. It wasn't me, at any rate.

The Valencia game was important but, well, it didn't cost us the league. At least not yet.

 

I was mad at Benzema, but then I saw Robben play for Bayern today

 

+1 :d

 

Think he needs a goal as he looks low on confidence at the moment

 

Both have been playing good in CL lately.

 

Laugh as you will, Robben's acts of benevolence and or incompetance primed us to focus 100% on our CL clash.




Atleast that's how I rationalize it.

 

Sadly I fear the same

 

Is this the time of the year when other fans start invading our boards?