Karim Benzema

[Maradona37]

Benzema also had spells where his all round game (which is normally great) was poor not just stats. Rooney on the other hand, always contributed and was more consistent in terms of performances and effort even when he didn't score. Rooney did his basics to a very high level consistently. He also had a more defensive role than Benzema dropping much deeper often and pressing like an animal.

IIRC Benzema finished a league season with 5 league goals despite being Real Madrid's main striker. That is an embarrassing return for a starting striker at Getafe, forget Real Madrid!

Rooney had a lot of bad spells too - United fans used to moan about some of his starts to seasons when he came back fat, and they also mocked him when he tried to play CM when dropped back in there later in his career (as I always said Rooney would struggle doing).

You're also conflating the number 10 Rooney with the number 9 Rooney - he rarely did both. For example, if you watch him 09-10 when he became that amazing goalscorer, he was mostly playing as a finisher. He wasn't running back to the full-back area to tackle players.

You're taking all of Rooney's attributes and acting like he did them all at the same time in games. Like when people act as if goalscoring Scholes and tempo setting Scholes were the same player.

I get that you strongly dislike Benzema and think he's overrated, but I feel that you have a rosy view of Rooney. They're both brilliant players but Rooney has had poor spells too. In fact every player has.

Does it really matter if Benzema got 5 goals one season? Even if he was poor, you're choosing his worst season there. And Ronaldo probably scored 50 but at least half was stat padding. If other players were scoring then Benzema could afford to have a bad year. And his 'poor link up play' times were anomalous - for 85 percent of the time it was top notch.

The point is he was brilliant for most of his RM career - like Ronaldo was, Or Lewa at Bayern, or Rooney before he declined at United, or Zlatan at PSG, or Suarez at Liverpool and a long time at Barca (despite his CL scoring record).

We are talking about the elite of the elite players, here. Separating them is a hard job.

Benzema was at Real Madrid for I think 14 years. Of course he will have had some dips in form. You love consistency so you have to admire a guy who can stay at Real Madrid as a top player for a decade and a half.

 

[Maradona37]

No shit Rooney was shining alongside CR7 at Man United. Early CR was a different beast and player altogether compared to his Madrid career post-2010. He was a pure winger with increasingly voluminious G+A output (not to mention he had actual defensive duties compared to his RM years until his last 08/09 season there). Even then, Rooney was a second/support striker and never got more than 16 league goals while he played with Ronaldo. In fact, most goals he scored while playing with CR was just 23 in all competitions.

Of course Benzema and other RM strikers had to accomodate their game to account for CR's movement to create space for him in the box and regularly drifted to the left wing. And yes, Benzema had lots of spells of poor goalscoring form. Both can be true, you are pushing a false dichotomy.

[MARCA] Benzema: "We no longer bother to look at what a guy does on pitch, just who scores. And the next day, we consider him the best. It's happened to me: I play a bad game, I score and they see me as the best. It has become a sport where you look at the statistics only. I don't really like it."

It's funny how we can mostly agree in one thread and one player (Benzema) but be at friendly odds in another (Kane) No harm meant in either thread, though - I enjoy the discussion with you guys. Even if it can become opinionated with us all.