Benzema vs Rooney

[Swoobs]

This doesn't make any sense but then it's your posts, so not surprising.






Not sure how I was condescending but like I said, it's you so it's not surprising. Stupid posts is something that should be expected by default.

We were talking about football related stuff in a post, and the next reply i got from you had absolutely nothing to do with football and merely laced with personal insults.
Even more funny was that you quoted a lot of things but you conveniently left out that particular post of yours. You should know it yourself why you did that.

But no, to you, you are not condescending but instead you think you are the sense talker and the poster of brilliant and mature posts. Stay up there on your moral high horse.

Well done and you can join the beacon of righteousness Pickle85 in the ignore list. Hope you got yourself a mirror.

 

[Swoobs]

The idea that either of them 'sacrificed' for Ronaldo is a bit nonsense to be honest.

Ronaldo was always going to be the main man, because he's the best player at either club.

It's not like Benzema/Rooney were going to match what Ronaldo was doing.

I also think there's a lot of revisionism regarding Benzema. If he was playing at this level that he has for the past 2 years, then yes, his 'longevity' blows Rooney's out of the water, but he himself had plenty of sub-par seasons as well. His game has definitely aged way better, but Rooney was better as a youngster.

The idea that it's not really close is rather hyperbolic. I can see arguments for both.

I'd probably pick Benzema, because of his late renaissance, but I could see arguments for Rooney.

Actually from what we have seen from Benzema for the past 2 seasons, I think it is fairly obvious that both Rooney and Benzema would have better stats if CR7 wasn’t there (but of course they will have less trophies).

The question is, who curbed their game more for CR7, or to put it another way, if CR7 wasn’t there in both their primes till now, whose stats would have exploded.

Another thing is, IMO they both operates best in different positions. Rooney can and should operate wider and deeper, while Benzema best operates as a CF. In an alternate world without Ronaldo and as a CF, I think Benzema would be a better CF than Rooney by a margin and would probably match Suarez in liverpool numbers, but in that same world Rooney would be quite ahead of Benz as a number 10/ wide attacker.

 

[Eplel]

If I had the benefit of hindsight while picking either a 22 year old Rooney or Benzema for my club, I would pick Benzema every time. If I didn’t have that benefit and had to pick on current form and potential, I would pick Rooney.

I wouldn't pick the guy that blackmails his teammates, not even if I thought Benzema was clearly better.
Especially knowing that pulling that shit in England would have seen Benzema kicked out of any team.

 

[the_cliff]

I hope it’s been mentioned somewhere on this thread that the PL is a much tougher league top to bottom than La Liga. For most of Benzema’a career with Real, apart from Barcelona and Atletico it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. In the PL, there are some Burnleys who lie in wait but it’s a fecking gauntlet going through the PL.

I guess we should use a competition both players are in then and compare their records in that:

Champions League Record:

Benzema:
76 Goals
28 Assists
9,709 Minutes Played
0.96 G+A per 90

Rooney:
30 Goals
21 Assists
7,247 Minutes Played
0.63 G+A per 90

 

[giorno]

Rooney's 2 best seasons were better than Benzema's best* season**, besides that i'd rate them as fairly equal, with Benzema spending more seasons in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo, and his current late career renaissance showing him to be probably more adaptable and capable of carrying the goal scoring burden for his team consistently, and certainly he beats Rooney for longevity

*Benzema's 15/16 is a big what if in this comparison, in a season cut short by injuries he was absolutely monstrous when fit. In general between 2013 and 2017 Benzema lacked Cristiano's machine like consistency but i'd go as far as saying when he was on, he was our best player, even above Cristiano at times. Like, if Cristiano was on, we knew it'd be pretty special night, but if Benzema was on, we knew we'd win. Not sure if i'm making myself clear here...

**Benzema's current season is peak-Henry like, if he keeps it up this comparison will have only one winner honestly

 

[roonster09]

We were talking about football related stuff in a post, and the next reply i got from you had absolutely nothing to do with football and merely laced with personal insults.
Even more funny was that you quoted a lot of things but you conveniently left out that particular post of yours. You should know it yourself why you did that.

But no, to you, you are not condescending but instead you think you are the sense talker and the poster of brilliant and mature posts. Stay up there on your moral high horse.

Well done and you can join the beacon of righteousness Pickle85 in the ignore list. Hope you got yourself a mirror.

Oh no, someone put me on ignore and announced it to caf

Your reply to my posts deserved the response it got, as simple as that.

 

[the_cliff]

Rooney's 2 best seasons were better than Benzema's best* season**, besides that i'd rate them as fairly equal, with Benzema spending more seasons in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo, and his current late career renaissance showing him to be probably more adaptable and capable of carrying the goal scoring burden for his team consistently, and certainly he beats Rooney for longevity

*Benzema's 15/16 is a big what if in this comparison, in a season cut short by injuries he was absolutely monstrous when fit. In general between 2013 and 2017 Benzema lacked Cristiano's machine like consistency but i'd go as far as saying when he was on, he was our best player, even above Cristiano at times. Like, if Cristiano was on, we knew it'd be pretty special night, but if Benzema was on, we knew we'd win. Not sure if i'm making myself clear here...

**Benzema's current season is peak-Henry like, if he keeps it up this comparison will have only one winner honestly

His current season is Balon Dor level good. What would you consider Benzema's peak ? as he's currently having his best season production wise in his career.

 

[giorno]

His current season is Balon Dor level good. What would you consider Benzema's peak ? as he's currently having his best season production wise in his career.

This season

 

[lex talionis]

I guess we should use a competition both players are in then and compare their records in that:

Champions League Record:

Benzema:
76 Goals
28 Assists
9,709 Minutes Played
0.96 G+A per 90

Rooney:
30 Goals
21 Assists
7,247 Minutes Played
0.63 G+A per 90

A powerful case, no question, but Real (and Barca) have always had the luxury of waltzing through La Liga and build their season around the CL, whereas that’s never been the case for any PL side, not even the United 98-99 side. The PL is medieval torture, leaving little left in the tank for the CL.

And it’s probably fair to point out the Real sides of the last decade or so have been better than the three United sides that went the CL finals during tenure. We had great squads, but Real was stacked with top quality at every position. Including Benzena, of course.

But this much is undeniable: Benzema at this age completely blows away Rooney, who fell apart as a professional athlete at too young an age IMO, an issue that has been discussed here at length.

 

[MrEleson]

A powerful case, no question, but Real (and Barca) have always had the luxury of waltzing through La Liga and build their season around the CL, whereas that’s never been the case for any PL side, not even the United 98-99 side. The PL is medieval torture, leaving little left in the tank for the CL.

This isn't true. They have each other to compete against so the bar is very high for the amount of points they need to accumulate over the course of a season. Real Madrid had plenty of seasons in the last decade where they missed out on the la liga trophy despite amassing 90+ points. This indicates that they are usually fighting till very late for the title.

 

[Drogon27]

Was this even a debate?

Shocking stuff rly.

 

[GatoLoco]

Fourth Real Madrid player to reach 300 goals, with Di Stefano, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul.

 

[MNG2646]

with only 15 penalties. i wonder how many Cristiano had.

 

[the_cliff]

with only 15 penalties. i wonder how many Cristiano had.

Ronaldo took 69 and scored 60. Then Ramos became primary penalty taker, Ramos took 17 and scored 16.

Btw this is just in the league.

 

[MNG2646]

So adding CL and other competitions i think CR7 took around 100 penalty goals. crazy to think If Benzema was the penalty taker he could have around 400 goals for Real Madrid by now.
and he was absent in NT for 4-5 years because of that stupid criminal case. if not he could have become top france NT goalscorer years ago.
Benzema is the definition of word underrated.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Given the choice between the 2 I'd pick Rooney any day of the week even with hindsight.

 

[Red the Bear]

Come back here when benzema managed to save derby from relegation, pfft you frenzy animals.

 

[Oly Francis]

A powerful case, no question, but Real (and Barca) have always had the luxury of waltzing through La Liga and build their season around the CL, whereas that’s never been the case for any PL side, not even the United 98-99 side. The PL is medieval torture, leaving little left in the tank for the CL.

Not exactly though, Real was weird in La Ligua for the past decade. They just rarely managed to be consistent week in and week out, that's why Barcelona won more titles dispite Real often being better in the CL. They waltzed through la liga without really giving themselves the chance to win it. I'm pretty sure you can find a couple of seasons when United could have had more juice for the CL if they had allowed themselves to drop a couple of extra games to secure a top 3 insteand of going for the title.

 

[Madridista2000]

Not exactly though, Real was weird in La Ligua for the past decade. They just rarely managed to be consistent week in and week out, that's why Barcelona won more titles dispite Real often being better in the CL. They waltzed through la liga without really giving themselves the chance to win it. I'm pretty sure you can find a couple of seasons when United could have had more juice for the CL if they had allowed themselves to drop a couple of extra games to secure a top 3 insteand of going for the title.

Can you explain why PSG never won CL? They can drop the whole league 1 and only focus on CL. In fact managers get fired even when they win League 1 and fail in CL. So focus for PSG is CL. They can drop 10 games in league 1 every season and still win the league. Why have they never won CL?
United has not won PL since 2013 and has not even been close to winning PL. So I am sure United performances in PL has nothing to do with not winning CL last 10 years.

 

[Oly Francis]

Can you explain why PSG never won CL? They can drop the whole league 1 and only focus on CL. In fact managers get fired even when they win League 1 and fail in CL. So focus for PSG is CL. They can drop 10 games in league 1 every season and still win the league. Why have they never won CL?
United has not won PL since 2013 and has not even been close to winning PL. So I am sure United performances in PL has nothing to do with not winning CL last 10 years.

You totally missed the point. I'm just saying that Real Madrid was weird with their lack of consistency in la liga and that they weren't really waltzing because of that. Barcelona was a La Ligua team and Real was a CL team. Might be because of the priorities of the board, might be because of the type of players they add, might be because of the coaches, hard to say. Had United tolerated this kind of inconsistency, they could have prioritized CL a bit more.

And i wasn't talking about United's past decade, the poster I quoted went back to 98-99.

 

[giorno]

96, 92, 100, 85, 87, 92, 90, 93, 76, 68, 87, 84

bolded = win
dark red = title race going to the end of the season
green = not involved in title race

of those 3 green seasons, one was Mourinho's toxic final season, one was post-cristiano/zidane. Only in one of those did we have a poor league season while making a deep CL run

 

[Jeppers7]

I think Rooney is overrated by United fans in general, almost as if he shouldn’t be compared with anyone that isn’t Messi, Ronaldo. My honest opinion is that Rooney was a great player for United but was never close to the best in the world. THe closest he came was as a teenager. He was an excellent all round forward but lacking in technique and acceleration and also consistency throughout a season at the highest level.

Benzema would’ve been an excellent signing in 09. How we didn’t strike a deal with Madrid to allow us first run at him after we sold them Ronaldo.

 

[Eplel]

He was an excellent all round forward but lacking in technique and acceleration and also consistency throughout a season at the highest level.

Can you please explain what you mean by lacking in technique and acceleration?

To say that Rooney was not a technically gifted player is a huge revisionism. Maybe you conflate technique with showboating.
As far as the acceleration claims, even in 2017 Rooney was recording speeds over 30km/h and making the top 10 fastest players in the world lists.

 

[Oly Francis]

96, 92, 100, 85, 87, 92, 90, 93, 76, 68, 87, 84

bolded = win
dark red = title race going to the end of the season
green = not involved in title race

of those 3 green seasons, one was Mourinho's toxic final season, one was post-cristiano/zidane. Only in one of those did we have a poor league season while making a deep CL run

5 losses and 6 draws in 13-14 is also not amazing for a CL winner.

I don't even know why you're trying to disprove that Real Madrid had consistency issues in la ligua while it was pretty widely talked about. Navas got a lot of sh*t because of that for exemple.

 

[giorno]

5 losses and 6 draws in 13-14 is also not amazing for a CL winner.

I don't even know why you're trying to disprove that Real Madrid had consistency issues in la ligua while it was pretty widely talked about. Navas got a lot of sh*t because of that for exemple.

Because, as those points total i posted show, it's complete bullshit

99, 96, 91, 100, 90(87), 94, 91, 90, 93, 87, 82, 86

Bolded = 2nd place

 

[Oly Francis]

Because, as those points total i posted show, it's complete bullshit

99, 96, 91, 100, 90(87), 94, 91, 90, 93, 87, 82, 86

Bolded = 2nd place

Yeah, right, I guess winning La Liga only 3 times in 10 years while winning 4 CL is totally normal then. When on the other hand Barcelona has 4 Liga and 1 CL. Put it as you want, Real overperforming in CL or underperforming in La ligua but either way it's in no way consistent.

 

[Madridista2000]

Benzema is not a pure nr. 9 like Inzaghi, Cavani, Van Persi, Suarez etc.

He is more like Del Piero, Ronaldo(9), Totti etc. He is all over the pitch.

Benzema career in Madrid has seen ups and downs, but generally throughout his career he has played at a high level. More a hybrid between 9 and 10. Surviving at Madrid since 2009 is not easy.

His lowest time was the 17/18 season when he only scored 5 goals in lal liga and the fans wanted to sell him. He was never a cynical nr. 9. Madrid fans wanted a nr. 9 that could score more goals.

Benzema also never was the main guy at Madrid during Ronaldo time. A lot of other guys got the credit. Ramos, Bale, Ronaldo, Modric always got more limeligt then Benzema.

When Ronaldo left Bale was the one people looked like the guy stepping up. Bale was more interested in Wales and golf.

Luckily Benzema stepped up. He now took all the responsibility on himself. It has been an amazing comeback since that 17/18 season for Benzema. Last 3 years he has been top 5 footballer in the world.

I hope it can continue 1-2 more seasons. If Benzema manages to win anther CL or WC with France. He will be considered one of the best forward last 20 years.

 

[Jeppers7]

Can you please explain what you mean by lacking in technique and acceleration?

To say that Rooney was not a technically gifted player is a huge revisionism. Maybe you conflate technique with showboating.
As far as the acceleration claims, even in 2017 Rooney was recording speeds over 30km/h and making the top 10 fastest players in the world lists.

Sorry I meant to say he lacked techniqueat the highest level, was he technically gifted. Of course he was. He just wasn’t elite level technically. Also you need to learn the difference between speed and acceleration. He was quick over 100 yards not 10.

 

[the_cliff]

Another side to this debate is we're looking at Rooney's career in retrospect.

Benzema is still going strong. In fact he just scored 2 goals last night, his 300th and 301st for Madrid.

I think by the end of Benzema's career there won't really be a debate.

 

[Eplel]

He just wasn’t elite level technically.

Nor is Benzema, and you're just using the word elite arbitrarily.

Also you need to learn the difference between speed and acceleration.

I know the difference very well, but 99% of footballer's runs are sprints not marathons, so to list yourself in the top speedsters you need to be explosive as well. And again, even you don't consider him "elite" (lol), neither is Benzema that regard.

 

[giorno]

Yeah, right, I guess winning La Liga only 3 times in 10 years while winning 4 CL is totally normal then. When on the other hand Barcelona has 4 Liga and 1 CL. Put it as you want, Real overperforming in CL or underperforming in La ligua but either way it's in no way consistent.

Explain to me how 6 finishes above 90 points, and 9 above 85 in 12 years is inconsistent. We came within 3 points, 4 points, 3 points, 2 points, 1 point and 2 points of winning the league, along with 3 wins. We were involved in title races that lasted into May, late April, late April, May, May, May, May July(Covid), and May

We were up against the Xavi-Iniesta-Messi-Guardiola Barcelona for 4 of those seasons and then again the MSN for another 3. We had literally 3 poor league seasons in 12 years

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Nor is Benzema, and you're just using the word elite arbitrarily.

No striker better than him technically in the past decade.

 

[Eplel]

No striker better than him technically in the past decade.

Is this a joke? Zlatan, Aguero and Suarez are easily better technically, not even in the same category.

 

[Madridista2000]

Is this a joke? Zlatan, Aguero and Suarez are easily better technically, not even in the same category.

Suarez has technique?

 

[Jeppers7]

Nor is Benzema, and you're just using the word elite arbitrarily.




I know the difference very well, but 99% of footballer's runs are sprints not marathons, so to list yourself in the top speedsters you need to be explosive as well. And again, even you don't consider him "elite" (lol), neither is Benzema that regard.

Technique, I’m talking about first touch, weight of pass in terms of elite and consistency. He also lacked skill to beat a man regularly and speed of thought in mind....again not saying he was poor but wasn’t elite. As for speed....what you’re saying is exactly what I’m saying. When he got up to top speed he was quick but lacked the initial acceleration to burst away.

I wasn’t talking about Benzema. Perhaps you’ve quoted the wrong poster.

 

[footballistic orgasm]

Is this a joke? Zlatan, Aguero and Suarez are easily better technically, not even in the same category.

They were all better goal scorers than him but not as good or better than him technically. One can maybe make an argument for Zlatan, but definitely not the other 2.

 

[FattyFooty]

Both sacrificed the majority of their own careers in favour of Ronaldo funnily enough. Both would have hit much higher heights without him in the team.

Football is a team game.

Benzema might got a few more goals, but he sure as hell not have 3 champions league if it wasnt for Ronaldo.

 

[Hammondo]

No striker better than him technically in the past decade.

Than Rooney? I would say he is not stand out in any way technically.

 

[Hammondo]

Suarez has technique?

Very good technique.

 

[Hammondo]

Is this a joke? Zlatan, Aguero and Suarez are easily better technically, not even in the same category.

Van Persie, Cavani, Lewandowski, Benzema,