The goalkeeper is not giving gifts because Benzema is cute! So fierce sprint run: interpret the strongest pseudo-nine

1987 was a year of top stars, with Messi, Suarez, Vardy, Higuain and Cavani all writing their own legendary chapters. The man who didn't think it lasted the most was Benzema.

From the Bernabeu to Stamford Bridge, from Paris to Chelsea, back-to-back hat-tricks, Benzema not only took Real Madrid one foot into the Champions League final four, but also brought himself a big step closer to the Ballon d'Or.

01. Benzema is playing a pseudo-nine: he does not love confrontation but uses sprinting to find space

Benzema's most goalscoring season so far in his career was 2011-12, when he scored 32 goals. However, after scoring a hat-trick in the first leg of this Round of Champions League Quarterfinals, he has scored 33 goals in 2021-22, setting a new career record.

Meanwhile, in natural years, Benzema scored 36 goals in 2021, similarly breaking his own personal best of 35 goals set in 2019. Some people say that Benzema is the first center today, but in terms of the role and positioning on the court, Benzema may be more suitable for the current strongest "pseudo-nine".

For example, this wave of attacks before the end of the first half, when Benzema made it difficult for opponents to stick to him through his wide-ranging retracement and instantaneous counter-run sprint.

In this way, Benzema not only succeeded in covering up his flaws of not loving close confrontation, but also magnified the overall advantage of Real Madrid's strong acceleration ability of the whole team.

Kante was in poor form for the game, failing this time to keep up with Modric, who had picked up Benzema. The latter split the ball into the flanks, and Vinicius unsurprisingly broke through the space behind Christensen.

The cross was given to the back post, Benzema killed in time, Jorginho's tackle did not play much role, but unfortunately Benzema's foot shot failed to hit the target.

Looking at Real Madrid's goal that broke the deadlock, it is actually the same reason. When Benzema retreated between Chelsea's midfield line and the defender line, Thiago Silva failed to follow, and N'Golo Kante did not realize the problem in time to withdraw.

Benzema organized a tandem attack in this pseudo-nine position, giving Vinicius the chance to penetrate Christensen. Tuchel let James start this game, and not letting Azpilicueta protect Christensen was actually a big failure.

The key problem is that Christensen has done so little to get close to Vinicius, which has led to Thiago Silva having to make up more of a gap, while Rudiger failed to move in time.

Benzema's no-ball counter-insertion was too fast, taking full advantage of the space left in the middle after Chelsea's two centre-backs were pinned down.

From the GIF, you can see the whole process of the attack from 2 angles, Benzema has not had physical contact with the other party from beginning to end, so his pass is beautiful, the starting speed is very timely, and finally received Vinicius's wonderful pass and the header broke the goal.

In fact, from the heat map and data of this season, it can also be seen that Benzema's ground one-on-one confrontation success rate is only 33%, even if the success rate of the head one-on-one confrontation is as high as 47%, but the overall single-player confrontation is still only 37% of the win.

However, through a large range of activities, Benzema allowed himself to reduce the number and frequency of confrontations, and found opportunities for no-ball sprints and grab points as much as possible. From this point of view, Benzema is actually more like a pseudo-nine than a center.

02. Do goalkeepers love Benzema? Gift-giving is due to his diligence

Speaking of Benzema's Champions League knockouts, it always seems to be linked to goalkeeper errors. From Liverpool's Karius, Bayern's Ulreich, to Donnarumma in the last round, to Mendy in this game, they saw Benzema seemed to be too soft to control the ball.

But the joke is a joke, Benzema's goal seems to be easy to shoot (after all, the empty goal), but the work before the shot is not so simple.

Real Madrid's third goal came from a big kick from the back, and after his teammates delivered the ball, Benzema sprinted forward at full speed, seemingly to compare speed with the ball.

So were Mendy's mistakes accidental? At least this time, by chance, it was because of Benzema's efforts that it was grasped, and it can also be said that It was because of Benzema's amazing movement that put pressure on the goalkeeper when handling the ball.

If you compare the compression data on the defensive end of the last round of Real Madrid's match against Paris Saint-Germain. Real Madrid can be seen with 204, 135 ahead of Paris. Benzema alone attacked the third zone for a number of pressures (14 times), even equal to the sum of the paris team.

Benzema was able to break donarumma because he completed a sprint at full speed over a long distance. Regardless of whether there was a foul controversy over the final break, at least Benzema's efforts created the possibility of scoring, and he was rewarded for it.

03. Extremely efficient scoring: Benzema's archery is at its best

In this game, Chelsea dominated both possession and shooting, and the 20-8 shot and 1-3 result showed that there was a big gap between the two teams in their ability to grasp opportunities.

In particular, Real Madrid only had a total of 1 shot in the second half, and Benzema's super efficiency became the key to the triumph of the away team.

Real Madrid's second goal, Benzema, showed his strong spatial insight. He swam behind Thiago Silva and received Modric's clever pass to complete the header.

The key point is that Christensen as a three-centre-back system, at this moment back point protector, he lacks the awareness of the complement. Watching Benzema thrust forward without any defensive action was one of the reasons the latter scored easily.

Among players who have scored more than 5 goals in the Champions League this season, Benzema has wasted the fewest absolute chances, just 2 times. Levan was also efficient in scoring goals, but he scored one more goal than Benzemado and conceded two more great chances.

In the second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, which had been a guest, had the upper hand. The result was that Benzema seized the opportunity to score goals three times in a row and completed the reversal in an instant.

It is true that Paris's few goals conceded have their own mistakes in them, but the problem is that Benzema's efficiency is too high. As long as you make mistakes, he will accept them all, which will further aggravate the psychological pressure of the opponent and lead to more mistakes.

Conclusion:

There are many great strikers born in 1987, but only Messi has won the Ballon d'Or before, will Benzema be the next?

With his super efficiency in the Champions League knockout rounds and leading the La Liga table, top scorer and assists list, Benzema really has a chance to try out the highest personal honor in the world of football.