Gareth Bale and Álvaro Morata cannot play until 2017, so Zinedine Zidane has available Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Mariano Díaz. The Dominican player has only appeared in a couple of games this season, so it’s unlikely that Mariano can fill the gap of the injury players.
The normal thing would be to use Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo in the attacking line and four midfielders. So far, Karim Benzema has been criticized for his bad moment in the club. There were supporters asking for more minutes for Álvaro Morata or even sacrifice the French striker for another midfielder. Now, it’s going to be easy for Zizou because Benzema and Cristiano are the only two forwards available.
Benzema started on the bench the derby against Atlético Madrid and also the game in the Champions League Group stage against Sporting Portugal. The French striker entered in the minute 67th and scored the winner in the 87th. Again, Benzema showed his best level in the Champions League becoming the third player still professional in the list of topscorer (48 goals) after Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, equalizing Ibrahimovic record.
After the game, Benzema spoke about the polemic: “People can talk about me, they’ll always talk. If I’m in a bad moment, if I don’t have space in the team, this thing or the other… It’s always the same. This is my eighth season at Real Madrid. I play in a great club and there are also other big players. It depends on me to give everything in the pitch. When I’m out for injury, it’s in my hand to come back and recover the good feeling, and this is what I’m doing little by little. The season is still very long”, Benzema said.
The French player got injured after the game against Legia Warsaw, where he scored another goal. He missed the game against Leganés and he had to recover during the international break. Now he should lead the attack and try to get closer to the numbers of the last season. It was his best season at Real Madrid, scoring 24 goals in La Liga in 27 games and 4 more in Champions League in 9 games. Great numbers for a striker.
This season, Karim Benzema has only scored 4 goals in La Liga -Athletic, Betis, Las Palmas and Espanyol- and two in the Champions League. As Benzema said, the season is very long but he has to take advantage of his position and convince the supporters because this year he has more competitors with Morata, Asensio or Lucas Vázquez at a great level.
