Real thrashed us while Benzema was playing...
Tbf, he was involved for Cristiano's 1st goal vs. Juve.
Benzema has been involved in 20 goals for RM this season and is 2nd best assist maker in RM behind Lucas Vasquez who's been a revelation since the new year. And when the season is over, Benzema will probably stand at the top. And he's currently 3rd among all assist makers in LaLiga behind Messi & Sisto.
Even ignoring those numbers, his influence/impact for the team can't really be measured by stats alone.
Benzema is not as bad footballer as people are making it out to be, although his finishing has admittedly not been clinical.
Your point? In their system Benzema is actually a fairly decent striker. As is demonstrated by the fact all those world class players around him like him a lot.
Benzema has rarely being used as an out-and-out striker during his time at RM, more of a F9 or even a SS. Hell, it's not unusual to see him moving on the left flank for an extensive period during games for them. If anything, Ronaldo is the real #9 where RM is tactically functioning to make chance after chance for him.
I’m pretty sure Benzema has been a starter for Real for the last decade, I don’t see why people are acting like he’s a scrub.
Because Benzema is ridiculously underrated. Simple as that.
The guy was (and still is) undoubtedly a genuine world class player over the years.
The worst part is they just assume he got lucky and Real have been fielding him all those years, even if he's clearly not good enough.
I've never really understood why this idea is existing.
You don't become a consistent starter by 4 different coaches for a club of Real Madrid's caliber if you're not "good enough".
- 7th highest goalscorer in Real Madrid's history with 189 goals. Has a better goal ratio compared to legends like Raúl, Santillana etc.
- 4th highest goalscorer in Champions League for Real Madrid with 41 goals.
- 3rd highest assist maker with 65 assists since since 2009/10, only Messi & Ronaldo are better than him. Could surpass Raúl's's 83 LaLiga assists.
- Consistently scored around 20 goals or more for several seasons.
Yep. People argue liekwise with Khedira. "How can this lucker be a world champ and a CL winner!!!!!"
Benzema is a really good player. If he was efficient, he would be regarded among the best strikers in the world.
Like I said before above, Benzema was rarely used as a pure #9 unlike Lewandowski, Aguero, Cavani, Higuain, Suárez, Icardi etc.
Having said that, he used to be a great goalscorer before starting to misfiring in front goal this season.