On Tuesday, Real Madrid drew at home against Tottenham Hotspur courtesy to a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty. They should have won the game given the amount of chances presented to Karim Benzema, Los Blancos’ No. 9. During the game, Gary Lineker slammed Benzema on Twitter claiming that he is overrated and that a goal every other game for a team like Real Madrid is nothing great. The verdict sounded cruel but was their truth to it? Yes, there was!
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Benzema’s contribution to Real Madrid’s recent success is rightly overlooked. Many fans have come forward and called him one the best strikers in the world and have accused football media of ignoring him. The truth is, he is not underrated. He is rated exactly how he plays and given the firepower in Madrid’s team, it comes as no surprise that he scores a lot. If there is one player that is highly underrated in the current lineup of Real Madrid, it is Marcelo. The number of times Marcelo starts an attack and the ball ends up in the net courtesy of a Ronaldo or Benzema shot is a lot. His positioning and passes in the final third have contributed to a great many goals. While Benzema too plays a crucial role in the tactical set up of this Real Madrid team, the question here is, how does he perform as a No. 9?
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It is a fact that Benzema, is an excellent forward and he gets the job done. But that’s about it! He gets the job done and nothing more. It seems like he lacks the required mental strength to drag his team out of ditches all by himself. In the 2013-14 season, he missed a lot of chances to put his team back on level terms in the home game against Barcelona in La Liga. He could have scored five to six goals by the end of first half after having missed so many chances. He eventually did score a couple of goals in the game but Real Madrid went on to lose the game 3-4. They lost the game by a goal and if Benzema would have taken even one of the several chances he missed, Real Madrid would not have lost. Such inconsistency has costed Real Madrid lot of points in the league and they have won only two league titles in the past 9 seasons.
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It should then come as no surprise that Madrid fans are calling for Harry Kane to replace Karim Benzema at Real Madrid. Tottenham have responded to calls from Real Madrid regarding Harry Kane and have priced him at 200 million pounds. Harry Kane has relatively performed better in recent years having scored stunning goals for Tottenham time and again. Benzema is a fantastic striker and a winner undoubtedly, but at the highest levels of football, there is a big difference between an excellent striker and a world-class striker.
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