Can Arsenal land Karim Benzema? by RC
A title challenging capture for sure. We took a look at him against fellow Frenchman Olivier Giroud to see how the two compare.
Arsenal are set to put all their eggs into one basket after they gave up on Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain and instead lodged a £31 million bid for Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema. Their offer was quickly rejected by the La Liga club. However, recent reports suggest that Madrid are open to offers for the striker amid claims that Rafa Benitez has targeted Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus to form part of a new-look Real, leaving the Frenchman surplus to requirements.
Stats from Opta-powered fantasy football game www.oulala.com show that Arsenal must now go all out in their pursuit of the Real Madrid hitman if they wish to put up a serious title challenge in the Premier League next season.
Fellow French striker Olivier Giroud impressed last season with 14 league goals in 27 games. The 28-year-old ranked fourth in the Premier League for goals per game, behind just Sergio Aguero (0.79), Diego Costa (0.77) and Harry Kane (0.62) with an impressive rate of 0.52.
In contrast, Benzema scored 15 league goals in 29 appearances for Real Madrid last season, an exact match of a goals per game rate of 0.52. However, the 27-year-old’s strike-rate was superior to Giroud’s (22% to 20%), as was his shot accuracy (53% to 50%).
Benzema also excelled creatively. With three times as many assists (10 to 3), more chances created per game (1.5 to 1) and also led his countryman for pass completion (79% to 68%). The stats underlining the benefits that Benzema would bring to Arsenal’s renowned style of play.
The stats also show that Benzema has more weapons to his armory. The Real Madrid man successfully completed 57% of his attempted take-ons in La Liga last season to just 39% from Giroud. Another quality that would undoubtedly compliment Arsene Wenger’s side.
Reports from Spain suggest that new Madrid manager Rafa Benitez plans to utilize one of either Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale in a more central role, thus having a significant impact on Benzema’s playing time.
In-turn, this has also alerted Manchester United to Benzema’s potential availability. Being over-patient in previous seasons has cost Arsene Wenger important transfer targets. However, with the swift capture of Petr Cech this summer, could the Arsenal boss follow this up with another signing of intent before the new season begins?
It’s not about stats
In the big games with giroud upfront it looked like we had nothing and the cohesion was wrong and we were not threatening
Benzema will give psychological fear to defenders and will make good runs for our midfield to pick out
I don’t think defenders would fear benzema, he’s quality but not that good to scare defenders off. Anyways he would be a great addition, I hope real get rues so we can land benzema. Time is not on our side, we need a top quality striker asap. Hope we are serious about getting benzema.
so what do you mean now? that Giroud is better than Benzema? You are a Tw#t.
Allot of our players didn’t show up in big games, surprisingly Sanchez and Ozil are among them. Cazorla shined. When we got all our players back and worked on our defence we showed we can be a match for big clubs. And Giroud was apart of that.
Totally agree – but this is the only thing that could make me want to sign Benzema. He’s talented and arrogant and is more capable of scoring in big games but EVERY time I watch France play he’s next to useless. I cry out for Giroud to come on when I watch France because even if he’s no better, at least he tries! I see Benzema as a baby Zlatan. He plays with that arrogance but he’s no ZLatan – he’s still extremely talented but his attitude makes him comparable to Giroud, when he should be clearly better.
All the stats quoted in the article are next to worthless because Benzema plays for Real. It’s hardly surprising he has more assists when they have several players who can score from 20-30 yards with much more regularity than any of our players can (let alone 5 yards) and he get’s more tap-ins because their wide players dominate the wings far more than ours do, which could account for his higher shot accuracy. That’s not to say he doesn’t score some brilliant goals or make brilliant assists from time to time, just saying the stats are a bit unfair, given the differences between the 2 clubs.
Lacazette would be a much better signing (or someone more similar that’s off the cards now) – different type of player to Giroud and so could conceivably play alongside him effectively but has proven himself capable as a lone frontman, a natural goalscorer and most importantly someone with real hunger.
Giroud extended his contract by 3 years..Grt!!!! Didn’t see this coming!!!!
it looks like giroud will be getting paid a kings ramsome for doing a paupers work, this will spell trouble for arsenal when trying to renegotiate walcotts new contract, as he will feel he is better than giroud(this is somewhat debatable)and wants a much as him what have you done wenger not a smart move at all on your part. giroud is worth only £90k a week at a push total reward for not as much effort. if he was banging in 25 goals every season i wouldn’t bat and eyelid to this, but he doesn’t and most likely never will. pay him his true worth and not an over inflated “world class” price.
Well I think that if we do sign someone like Benzema, who let’s face it would take his place in the side, how are we ever going to shift Giroud? Who would match those wages for Giroud?
Wouldn’t read much into that. Contract extensions these days seem more about teams maximising their assets’ transfer value rather than a genuine desire to keep them at the club. See Suarez and Bale as prime examples.
Giroud is not asset,he’s no Bale or Suarez there’s no big team after him who are willing to pay 50mil or more for him to transfer to them!
Every player in a football club counts as an asset, I just don’t understand why some people are so dumb. It’s simple fact. Every single player even yaya counts as an asset.
You’re the dumb one,at the 130K wages Giroud is gonna get no team will be willing to match that unless we sold him for maybe 4mil at a loss from the 11mil or so we spent buying him,we would end up like Man United who took a major hit on RVP who was a liability not an asset!
We do you guys feel like you have to insult one another to get your point across? We are all Arsenal fans.
COYG!!
Don’t believe everything you read, there’sno report on the Arsenal site, only in the Metro quoting some Eyetie website!
Hardly reliable is it.
Some people have gullible written all over them (and I’m being very polite in the description)!
Benzema would add much needed quality to our attack. He would be a huge signing, I don’t think we can get him for 31 mil. We can get him for a fee around 40-45 mil. I don’t think real would sell him that cheap. 31 mil is a ridiculous offer, we should go in with a 40’mil offer and land our man. I think he is well worth 40 mil in today’s market
I’d even go to 40 million plus £1…
I just don’t understand what Wenger is thinking bidding 31 mil for benzema in today’s market. Why are we so fkin scared to spend money???we have the sources and I think it’s about time we start spending big, just bid 45 mil for benzema and land our man.
If we just bid 45m Madrid would likely ask for 50m that’s prob why
Nice angle “sylvain wiltord”….am guessing you’re an entrepreneur
Na not me mate I’m your typical 9-5 working arm chair supporting kinda guy ! Who’s not to influenced by Fifa manager mode
i would rather dock his wages if it meant more wages to get the benz in through the door
Arsenal is not going to sign anyone.
Zulu try to stay positive
i agree wenger is not interested in spending.
I can bet with 100% assurance that b4 d end of this transfer window Benz will be a Gunner.
There is only so much you could defend Giroud.. But with the scoring record of 0.2 goals against the ‘top four’ in his last 3 seasons… There is just no way i could be convinced that he would be of any use to us in overcoming that hurdle of finishing second best to the title rivals. He is virtually ineffective against them, just about manages to pull of a string fairly average performances against ‘lesser sides’, yet the cult following he’s gained seem’s to have convinced people than he is… Ill turn up at the emirates and sing ‘Na na Giroud’ , in appreciation for what he has done for the club so far and the fact he is an Arsenal player. But im not going to delude myself into believing there is some unlockable ‘super saiyan mode’.
come out come out muzzi ozcan wherever you are. where is this big signing at it doesn’t seem to be happening(i have seen on his twitter briefly and there are a lot of people defending him), and wasn’t there someone on here that was defending him(i think he was his friend or something like this) but if your wrong your wrong, but to better get him to hurry up with some more rumors, even @leo dosnt seem as on the ball these days, as he once was haven’t seen him in a little while either, he had better get out here and feed more some more rumors, i am hungry for some more info.
p.s the moral of the story is dont try and second guess wengers transfers knows what is really going on lol lol coyg
Leoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..the only one with credible gossips here..WE NEED STRIKER AND DM period..Coq and Giroud ares a good back up nothing else..IF WE WANT TO WIN THE EPL..that’s what is missing…if someone who has been home grown or being for years in the team have not made it after all these years then loan them or release them..no sympathy,you play IF YOU SHOW THE QUALITY .
I am not knocking Leo – but I have nearly always read or seen Leo’s tips/gossip elsewhere on the web before he posts here. I can’t be the only one.
I am pissed today hearing about Olivier Giroud three year contract and salary he is earning.That is unfair because Giroud does not deserve it.He has not worked to show that he deserves it.We should look at the quality snd output of our players before paying them.Well its too late now so we should look forward.We dont need stats to even tell us that Girouf is usually average for arsenal than good at most times.I would have sold him if i was Wenger because he does not deserve to be leading the line still after 3 years and i doubt he will like to warm the bench.He is very lucky to have Wenger as a coach of arsenal london fc.Arsenal has not moved forward because we think getting rid of players is a bad thing.We always hesitate when it comes to selling players we dont need.Arsenal need a world class cf not a world class cf.Its is time to move forward by addressing our mistakes.Since Van persie left we have needed a cf and ifBenzema is available we need to get rid of who we dont need so that we move forward.Arsenal do not need Giroud though many may be against my speech.Once the premier league starts and Giroud is our main cf it shows that Wenger has not learnt from his mistakes.Just as we got Cech who to me was a need he needs to just find as a reliable and clinical cf.
Jeez come down boys. Just be patient
Y feed on scraps, y not the real deal, don’t want no mercedes benzema i want the rolls reus
Real Madrid going for Reus so We go for Benzema, WHAT? Why not like this – Arsenal going for Reus so Real Madrid stuck with Benzema….laugh hysterically…hahahahahaha
Say no to Benzema, yes to reus and lewandowski
Giroud Mania Syndrome.
“The stats don`t lie” ? There are lies, lies, bloody lies…and statistics!” They just prove whatever you want them to prove, depends how you juggle them.
If Benzema is as good as so many guys here want us to believe why would Madrid want to get rid of him?
Because Benitez lost his managerial skills many many years ago…..
because he is no ronaldo or bale… Are you suggesting that we go after them instead?