Karim Benzema

hala you called benzema game in cdr final bad, and he was excellent in that match

i don't make excuses for benzema, who the *bleep* scores every week off 2 shots a game? no one stop acting like a noob, i have always said if benz shoots as much as cr and is not scoring then complain all you want, bale, di maria, isco, were very selfish at different parts of the season fact

of course i like di maria doesn't change the fact he is awful at rw, scoring fluke goals and clearly only passing to cr, which again benzema got blamed for, like how isco wasn't creating anything just glory hunting and playing zero defense and all of you called that brilliant, again you all use hype to judge players and not what actually happening in games

halamadrid2 wrote:Chad you do know people have their own opinions???

It doesn't have to be the same as yours

oh come off it, you know damn well that benz criticism is excessive and exaggerated, just like how every other cf can struggle to score and miss sitters, and they don't get 10-15 pages of enjoyment, even cr missed couple sitters no one is destroying him, and bringing it up every second, a lot of benzema mistake are average mistakes that happens to every player

halamadrid2 wrote:I know what you mean sport

But say if someone bumped the Bale thread and said that he has been crap all season(which is true) do you think there will be a single person defending him???

Alot of the criticism of Benz in the past has been justified (I have criticised him alot too but not in this thread). The problem is you can't even give constructive criticism without having someone fiercly defend him. So it becomes a love benz vs hate benz campaign.

Exactly. I never intended to hate on him. I'm very happy that he's become an important cog in the wheel at Real Madrid, and he's finally showing that he can be consistent for longer periods of time. I wanted to raise the point that it hasn't always been as easy for him at Real Madrid, something certain people seem to have forgotten, already. I should know, since there used to be a time when the majority of RM fans on here wanted him out, and I was one of few people who defended him.

The immediate response and defensive stance from Chad was naturally expected, but then sport butted in and started questioning my footballing knowledge, simply because he didn't agree with Higuaín being the overall better performer, back when both of them were fighting for the striker position.

What's with the fanboy-ism? I didn't expect you to be such a fanboy, sport. I knew that you were a follower of Benzema, since I remember we had a discussion about his time at Lyon, a couple of years ago. I had no clue you were such a fan of him that you have to resort to sarcastic remarks, simply because you disagree with a comment that involves him.

I've learnt by now that Chad doesn't mind having his intellectual capability questioned, every time he answers to Benzema criticism with a hateful, nonsensical paragraph, surrounded by "laughing"- emotes. But I didn't expect you to stoop down to his level.

this forum and its bias, i have seen plenty of game where multiple players were worst than benzema at the start of the season and he is the only one who gets bash, just like this season and last season, but his games are only worth anything when there bad/doesn't score and worthless when he is playing well

you guys treat higs like a legend ffs, and skip over all his glaring faults, the same faults you killed benzema for, none of you can call me a fanboy without looking in the mirror

Every striker goes through big ups and downs in a season... all of them.  The only thing i look for is fitness and effort as long as the results are there overall by the end of the season.  Other than his first season, Benz has given his all and produced like none other (except Ibra).

To expect or believe that striker stays on form every month of every year is just unrealistic and, frankly, impossible unless you're at the level of a Pele or the sort.

So you look at a CF that takes no PKs and has gotten about 3 shots on avg (a little less) since he's playing next to Ronaldo AND dealt with rotation for all but 1 year...  yet he's averaged 25 goals and 14 assists for the past 4 seasons.  Not to mention he's got 40 goals in 67 CL games with no PKs.  Add to that, he's scored as many goals as Ronaldo at the Bernabeu against Barca (again without PKs no less).

My question is... what is your expectation?  That's what i don't understand.  Unless Benz plays at the level of a Raul at his peak, you guys think he's shat.  It's unbelievable.

their expectations is not peak raul, its any striker but benzema is good, cause he was better than their new raul higz and its clearly the base of these debates

chad4401 wrote: this forum and its bias, i have seen plenty of game where multiple players were worst than benzema at the start of the season and he is the only one who gets bash, just like this season and last season, but his games are only worth anything when there bad/doesn't score and worthless when he is playing well

you guys treat higs like a legend ffs, and skip over all his glaring faults, the same faults you killed benzema for, none of you can call me a fanboy without looking in the mirror

Higuaín was underperforming, as well. I stand by my opinion that his overall performance was better than that of Benzema, at the time; but he was largely ineffective, and often anonymous when it mattered most. Still, he had the majority of backers who believed that he was the successor to Raúl, and that he would only improve in time.

In terms of showing predatory instincts in front of goal, there was no doubt who stood out the most. Higuaín was very clinical in the league. He was a fan favourite, and he even showed glimpses of genius, every rare once in a while. However, despite many Real Madrid fans (on this forum), and even some non-RM fans claiming that El Pipita was a top 5 striker in Europe at the time, his contributions in important fixtures were rarely positive. It soon became apparent that one of them, or even both, had to go.

A lot of people thought that Benz would be the one to get shipped off. After all, the majority of fans wanted Higuaín to inherit Raúl's legacy. He wasn't just some foreigner; he was a passionate Madridista. Like I've mentioned before, I was the most active defender of Benzema on here, and although I tried to argue that we should keep them both, hardly anyone felt that he was more valuable than his counterpart.

Like now, both Higuaín and Benzema had their share of fans on here, but the amount of people who defended Benzema was so small that I don't even remember who the other ones were. There were some who wanted both of them to be replaced, but most of the top posters in the RM section, spearheaded by Crimson, firmly believed that Higuaín had the most potential. I think a lot of people were surprised when it turned out that Higz was undergoing a medical at Napoli. I remember that Crimson was pretty mad about it.

I don't know why they decided to keep Benzema over Higuaín. I was arguing that Benzema was the more consistent performer in the Champions League, but I knew as well as everyone else that his overall performance was hardly worth bragging about. My guess is that Higuaín was more dispensible as a pure goalscorer, whereas Benzema had a unique playing style and link-up play that complimented CR's goalscoring ability. Not to mention his commercial value, as one of the most popular players in France. Regardless of the reason, it seems to me that they made the right choice. We may not have a "Raúl" these days, but we have plenty of attacking threat.

Except Benz scored more than Higuain while they were rotating... that probably had nothing to do with the decision of course.

How about using facts to augment your argument.  We'll throw away Benz' first year since he was injured and Higuain's year where he was injured.  In the 2 years that Benz and Higuain went at it head-to-head:
-  Benz had 32 goals/12 assists and 20 goals/17 assists
-  Higuain had 26 goals/10 assists and 13 goals/8 assists

When the more talented and more accomplished overall footballer who is not just a scorer OUTSCORES the pure 9, then it stands to reason that the better footballer is the choice.

Is it Higuain's clasico performances that were so great?  His CL output?  Heck, did he do well in more than a couple of bigger games in his whole career at Madrid?

So talent, overall production and big game production are all on Benz' side.  It's really not that hard to understand Madrid's decision.  It was a no-brainer.

Whatever you say

thimmy what about lyon game? bvb? mancity?barca? higs got chances to cement his place as starter multiple times, and he straight up flopped all of those games.

yet posters like you acted as if zidane and perez was the only reason benz started a head of higs, which was clearly not true,but its a great EXCUSE you all fall back on to spread his legends, callejon is out performing him right now ffs

im pretty sure the sack carlo thread started because carlo backed benz over falcao, and got chicha as back up, yet everyone pretends otherwise, again more bias bs that is cool and funny because its anti-benzema, the stupidity at times

chad4401 wrote:thimmy what about lyon game? bvb? mancity?barca? higs got chances to cement his place as starter multiple times, and he straight up flopped all of those games.

yet posters like you acted as if zidane and perez was the only reason benz started a head of higs, which was clearly not true,but its a great EXCUSE you all fall back on to spread his legends, callejon is out performing him right now ffs

im pretty sure the sack carlo thread started because carlo backed benz over falcao, and got chicha as back up, yet everyone pretends otherwise, again more bias bs that is cool and funny because its anti-benzema, the stupidity at times

I've never said, nor supported that claim. Don't know who you're referring to. In fact, I've very rarely been posting outside of this forum's off-topic section for quite some time now. Sack Carlo thread? First time I hear about it.

I know I criticised Benzema in the live chat, that time when you kept spamming with "shut up", or something along those lines. I still believe that he played poorly in that game. If I said anything else negative about Benzema, it was because your attitude provoked me.

my bad then, but it was common excuse used in higs defence from his fanboys, the sack carlo thread wasn't necessarily directed at you since zeal was the one who started it for obvious reasons

the point is if you guys don't rate benzema its cool, my problem as always been the need to make it look like he is a fault for everything, midfield suck benz fault,defense leaking goals benz fault, cr flopping and shooting like a maniac benz fault, as long as the team is bad benzema has to be the problem some how, and when the team is doing well he get treated like a non factor,that lucky to be there, again i have seen players do less(ozil) and get treated like a goat regularly, until he left that is, all based on hype and not performances

I'll say this... Benz is not one who starts seasons well. My beef with him is that he usually starts very slow and then picks up steam. Peeps get frustrated and then he catches fire around the turn of the year.

This season (and the one where he scored 32) are the only ones where he's caught form so early on, which would indicate that he's going to have huge year.

He's perfect by no means. The fact that he's so reserved and non-emotional makes it hard for people to love him. But he's one of the best and there's no doubt about that anymore. Still only 26 too.

thimmy you guys are not provoking me , how can you when the simplest miss is being treated like its the end of the world, i say shut up cause its obvious and annoying, especially after being *bleep* quiet when cr just missed a sitter

chad4401 wrote:thimmy what about lyon game? bvb? mancity?barca? higs got chances to cement his place as starter multiple times, and he straight up flopped all of those games.

Yeah, he was consistently useless against strong teams, for the most part. Even in the supercup where he scored against Barca, he was mostly anonymous. I believe a major reason why people wanted to keep him, was probably because they really wanted him to be the next Raúl. Very few players at Madrid have been as popular as Higuaín was.

- Well, I think I'm entitled to criticise him every once in a while, after all the crap I went through back when hardly anyone else sided with me about keeping Benzema

good lord...  you really believe what you're saying thimmy.  So his away goal at Lyon was useless.  His goal against Barca in supercup was useless as was his assist in that game.  His double against Barca was useless.  His 5 goals in Bernabeu against Barca and his 2 at Barcelona were all useless.  Heck, his opening goal against Atleti last season was usless.  City, Bayern , Dortmund, Liverpool, etc.  All useless.

Higuain was more useful not scoring in big games

I didn't know you were such a hater.   I know now.  No need to respond.  My interest in this discussion has ended.

sportsczy wrote:good lord...  you really believe what you're saying thimmy.  So his away goal at Lyon was useless.  His goal against Barca in supercup was useless as was his assist in that game.  His double against Barca was useless.  His 5 goals in Bernabeu against Barca and his 2 at Barcelona were all useless.  Heck, his opening goal against Atleti last season was usless.  City, Bayern , Dortmund, Liverpool, etc.  All useless.

Higuain was more useful not scoring in big games

I didn't know you were such a hater.   I know now.  No need to respond.  My interest in this discussion has ended.

I don't even know what you're talking about, anymore.

Edit: As usual, you're only reading what you want to read. I was talking about Higuaín, not Benzema.

thank you thimmy, i dont even dislike higuain since i have supported madrid before i even knew about benzema, but he had his faults too, but you know due to his popularity, benzema had a harder time fitting in with the fans, cause they wanted higs to start for starting sakes, and was very patient with him the lyon game proved that

Problem with Higuain was he was a good goalscorer, but he never turned up in the big games. Benzema scored in the big games, but he wasn't exactly a pure goalscorer like Falcao/Cavani, something we wanted at the time.

That doesn't really matter now, since we've now shown we can win the CL without a pure goalscorer. Benzema would certainly score more though, if he was the focal point of a team.

i never got this pure scorer thing, tbh as long as the team create clear cut chances for him he shoots, even if it 10 shots he will shoot, cr is the pure goal scorer on the team, you can't have a team filled with pure goal scorers, someone has to sacrifice something

im pretty sure that cr and higs partnership sucked

Yohan Modric wrote:Problem with Higuain was he was a good goalscorer, but he never turned up in the big games. Benzema scored in the big games, but he wasn't exactly a pure goalscorer like Falcao/Cavani, something we wanted at the time.

That doesn't really matter now, since we've now shown we can win the CL without a pure goalscorer. Benzema would certainly score more though, if he was the focal point of a team.

Like you said, we don't need a pure goalscorer. Benzema is in great form, and he's an integral part of the team, whether he scores or just provides. His confidence and consistency hasn't been this good since he played for Lyon.

Thimmy wrote:

chad4401 wrote:thimmy what about lyon game? bvb? mancity?barca? higs got chances to cement his place as starter multiple times, and he straight up flopped all of those games.

Yeah, he was consistently useless against strong teams, for the most part. Even in the supercup where he scored against Barca, he was mostly anonymous. I believe a major reason why people wanted to keep him, was probably because they really wanted him to be the next Raúl. Very few players at Madrid have been as popular as Higuaín was.

- Well, I think I'm entitled to criticise him every once in a while, after all the crap I went through back when hardly anyone else sided with me about keeping Benzema

Oh c'mon, I never was a Benzema fanboy, and I liked Higs more than Benz in the early years, but in the big games, Benz was always one of our biggest performers for a very long time. He was the only one I believe in before every classico.

And, even though I liked Higs, imho, he was loved because he was the best out of a very awful group for a very long time. Playing alongside the Fauberts, Vaarts, Emersons, Drenethe, Heinze, Saviola, Miguel Torres (as a winger *shivers*), Baptista and mother e****n Balboa, can really make you shine quite easily if you're a decent player.

Kuru wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

chad4401 wrote:thimmy what about lyon game? bvb? mancity?barca? higs got chances to cement his place as starter multiple times, and he straight up flopped all of those games.

Yeah, he was consistently useless against strong teams, for the most part. Even in the supercup where he scored against Barca, he was mostly anonymous. I believe a major reason why people wanted to keep him, was probably because they really wanted him to be the next Raúl. Very few players at Madrid have been as popular as Higuaín was.

- Well, I think I'm entitled to criticise him every once in a while, after all the crap I went through back when hardly anyone else sided with me about keeping Benzema

Oh c'mon, I never was a Benzema fanboy, and I liked Higs more than Benz in the early years, but in the big games, Benz was always one of our biggest performers for a very long time. He was the only one I believe in before every classico.

And, even though I liked Higs, imho, he was loved because he was the best out of a very awful group for a very long time. Playing alongside the Fauberts, Vaarts, Emersons, Drenethe, Heinze, Saviola, Miguel Torres (as a winger *shivers*), Baptista and mother e****n Balboa, can really make you shine quite easily if you're a decent player.

damn i remember that team, heinze was so awful i used to get happy when he got injured; if he didn't cause us to concede, he would foul a player that would lead to us conceding from that free kick....lol faubert who was sleeping during a game, its amazing we won the league that year, the calderon-schuster days....as far as the benzema higuain debate goes (it should be ended by now), what hampered both was the rotation under moourinho, i didn't like benz cos he blew hot and cold, due to not playing consistently, most fans liked higs cos of his escapades when he first joined with those late goals, but his lack of product in big games was disgusting. and yeah benz ability to understand the role cristiano plays has helped him and the team...ronaldo and higuain's partnership was always a bit testy, its almost like there were tensions between the two...who can forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58w9Lkses10

altho ron would give him an assist later, and that play was cristiano's fault, but benzema's understanding of his role and the frontline means such is avoided....both good players, but higs has left, time we move on....its not like benz is playing like shit, there's no reason to insult him, and there's no reason to constantly defend him at every turn, let his football do the talking and let's be happy the team is winning, that's what matters most, not 1 individual player, whether its benz, casillas, cristiano, ramos or whoever. Team First

tito higs never blew hot and cold?, again with the exaggerating because as you said you never liked him(your a higs fanboy), that why i dismissed your posts, you even said rotation hampered both, but still have a problem with consistency? like higs was consistent , stop trying to sound smart, while contradicting yourself

Oh btw how was lewa today? superior?.... hype

not saying any names but the man crush on this thread is a tad weird