In this morning's Champions League knockout round, Benzema once again played a heroic role, and his header in extra time helped the team advance smoothly.
Benzema's header broke the goal, is this sentence a particularly frequent appearance recently? Yes, in the last month Benzema has scored 4 headers in 3 games, and the topic of his improvement in header ability has also been used by some celebrities.
A few days ago, Real Madrid star Zamorano said in an interview with as a newspaper: "In the game, I remembered an interview with Benzema a long time ago, when he was asked where his ability was still room for improvement, he said it was his header. Against Chelsea in the first leg, his first header was the hardest. Paired with Vinicius's two-on-one, Benzema ran 20-25 metres to pick up the ball, with defenders on either side. Although the pass was perfect, it wasn't easy to top the goal, it carried a lot of spins and was very powerful. Benzema seemed to be very relaxed, in the acceleration, he adjusted his body posture very well, and scored a perfect header, which had strength and angle on goal, which was very exciting. ”
The premier league's historical goalscorer Alain Shearer, at his peak, his header was also a frightening presence for the opposing defenders, according to statistics, shearer has a goal from the way the header is broken, and his header ability in FIFA games has reached 94. He also recently expressed his recognition of Benzema's head-kick ability, and after the first leg against Chelsea, Shearer also published a column in ta to explain how Benzema created space and how his header ability has improved a lot.
And after this morning's match, Henry also joined the army of blowing Benzema's head, and he asked us to take a closer look at Benzema's position for the goal.
After Cristiano Ronaldo left the team, Benzema became the new air power of Real Madrid
Since the departure of C Ronaldo, the offensive responsibility of Real Madrid has fallen on the shoulders of Benzema in recent years, and he has lived up to expectations, even if he is no longer young, he continues to make progress. Benzema, who was closer to the goal, scored more headers.
In Cristiano Ronaldo's last four seasons at Real Madrid, Benzema scored a total of 7 headers in La Liga and won 57 aerial confrontations, with a 34.5% success rate of air confrontations. In the four seasons after Cristiano Ronaldo left the team, Benzema scored 18 headers in the league, won 115 aerial confrontations, and increased the success rate of confrontation in space to 41%.
The data in the Champions League is also in contrast. In the four seasons before Cristiano Ronaldo left the team, Benzema scored only 5 goals in the Champions League, winning a total of 16 aerial confrontations, and the success rate of aerial confrontations was only 24%. In the last four seasons of the Champions League, Benzema has scored nine headers and won 34 aerial confrontations, with a 40% success rate in aerial confrontations.
If you count the league + Champions League, this contrast is even more stark: 2014-18 scored a total of 12 headers to win 73 aerial confrontations, and in 2018-22, he scored 27 goals overhead to win 149 aerial confrontations, the latter two more than twice the former.
In the past works since the release of the FIFA09 game in the second half of 2008, the Data on Benzema's head ball ability can also indicate that his header began to improve four years ago, and the author also specially counted the data related to the head of the FIFA game Benzema in particular:
FIFA09: Header accuracy 81, strong 80, running position 81
FIFA10: Header accuracy 81, strong 80, running position 78
FIFA11: Header accuracy 78, bounce 74, strong 78, running position 80
FIFA12: Header accuracy 78, bounce 65, strong 75, running position 85
FIFA13: Header accuracy 78, bounce 71, strong 75, running position 87
FIFA14: Header accuracy 78, bounce 71, strong 75, running position 87
FIFA15: Header accuracy 78, bounce 71, strong 78, running position 87
FIFA16: Header accuracy 78, bounce 70, strong 78, running position 87
FIFA17: Header Accuracy 78, Bounce 70, Strong 78, Running Position 87
FIFA18: Header accuracy 78, bounce 70, strong 80, running position 85
FIFA19: Header accuracy 80, bounce 73, strong 80, running position 86
FIFA20: Header accuracy 86, bounce 79, strong 80, running position 89
FIFA21: Header Accuracy 91, Bounce 79, Strong 80, Running Position 90
FIFA22: Header accuracy 90, bounce 79, strong 82, running position 92
We can see that Benzema's header accuracy lasted for 8 years from FIFA11-18 to a stable value of 78, but from FIFA19 it finally returned to 80+, and has since risen to about 90 in the past years. You know, FIFA19 was released in the summer of 2018, which is exactly the season after C Ronaldo left the team, and the above FIFA19 data is updated to the end of the 2018-19 season.
As Zamorano said, after Ronaldo left the team, Benzema was closer to the goal, and his position on the field was more open to make the opposing defender unpredictable.
The header gets stronger, and that's not all
However, is Benzema's ability to improve so clearly on the head is simply because Ronaldo left the team? Of course, this is not the case, during the Lyon period, Benzema did not make teammates with C Ronaldo at that time, and in the last two seasons of Lyon, Benzema only scored 4 headers in all competitions.
So why did Benzema's header improve so dramatically? Let Benzema tell you all about it himself. Not long ago, Benzema was interviewed by the French media "Team Newspaper", and when asked why his aerial ability has become stronger, he said this:
"Because I didn't have abs before, that's why. It's true that I've scored a lot of headers now and now I have more core and abs training, so I realise I can jump higher than some defenders. Of course I'm not a fool, I jumped up and knew whether to swing my head or just shoot the goal. Although many people can break the goal with their eyes closed behind the jump, I want to emphasize that you must open your eyes when you head the ball to be better. ”
(Shearer: It was a stunning jump in place, and being able to jump to this height was a performance moment for a center forward)
In 2014, Benzema once said in an interview that before each race, he would watch the game video of his idol Da Luo, yes, when you look at Benzema's early game videos, you will find that he will be more obsessed with breaking the goal after getting rid of his opponent through the dribbling under his feet, and like to single out the opposing defender by his own ability under his feet.
Therefore, Benzema at that stage did not particularly care about his own header offensive methods, after all, his idol Da Luo had only scored 46 headers in his career (Benzema has scored 34 headers in La Liga so far), only 10.9% of the total goals.
Perhaps over the years around Ronaldo, Benzema realized that the core strength is very helpful for headers and goals, and after C Ronaldo left, he had to take on the task of bombing more aerial threats in the penalty area, so the constantly learning Benzema strengthened the training of core strength and became a better head player.
After the age of 30, a soccer player bounces up significantly, behind which a lot of effort and sweat are made at the same time. In FIFA22, his bounce ability is 79, and before FIFA19 his bounce ability value was stable at 70.
(Benzema is currently the fourth top scorer in Champions League history, three goals behind Levan, and this season Benzema has a chance to equalize or even surpass)
In addition, there is another point of view that also has some truth. My friend "Football Dr. Huang" has said before that there is no aggressive forward header, and Benzema's increase in aggressiveness on the field in recent years is obvious to everyone.
Therefore, the author believes that C Ronaldo's departure from the team has given Benzema more firing power and forward space, the core strength of the body has been greatly improved, the individual has more leadership on the field, the sense of responsibility and the offensive end is more aggressive, these reasons have created a qualitative leap in the ability of Benzema's head ball today. (Supine Braces/Qiu Yixi)