Player Review

THIS IS MY OPINION

This Benzema card is not great, I am not going to lie. Yes he looks absolutely juiced on paper but that just doesn't covert to ingame. Unfortunately his dribbling is still too clunky and his left stick is not great and yet again this is to do with his height and body type. This weekend league I went 14 and 6, mixing between different strikers. To be honest out of the 4 I used in Weghorst, Danjuma, Perisic and Benzema he was probably the least reliable.

My biggest issue with this card is what he tries to be. Perisic's dribbling is beautiful and as we all know is a really jammy player and he controls the ball perfectly. Weghorst makes a run in behind and uses his strength to ward off defenders. Benzema never makes that run in behind, and I mean never. He will start it but then turn back whenever he gets close to the backline (This is when he is instructed to get in behind). So when he turns back and you pass him the ball his dribbling is not good enough and he moves too slowly to get around a Varane or a Gomez. Also, on the rare occasion he gets in behind he isn't like Vinny and gets caught up quite easily.

Now I tried Benzema as a cam for a few games, which usually is PIM Best or sometimes Dele Alli for me. As a cam its hard for me to say if he is better or not. The pros of playing him as a cam is that he is always in open space as he is not required to make runs in behind, so the first phase of attack in getting the ball to the cam is always easy and effortless. But the second phase of finding the space and playing those balls in just doesn't work as he is trying to be something he isn't. Dele Alli's passing is effortless and goes exactly where you need it to go, George Best's dribbling allows him to get around cdm's and find the space to work off, Benzema just isn't able to do this. Again his dribbling and turning is clunky and his passing feels so forced, almost as if he is winding up like a golf swing to release a ball that has a 50/50 chance of going where you want it to go.

Quick note for some reason he always is the first player into orange stamina in my team, usually occurring around the 60th minute.

Now Benzema is still a class finisher, if he is in the right position near the box and you get the shot off it will go in apart from one or two jammy misses/autoblock. But even though his shooting is class I really don't enjoy having to fully rely on my cam and second striker to work the attack and make the runs the whole time, to then have to force the ball to Benzema for him finish it off. I have found that bringing him on at half time makes him a lot better as obviously he is playing against a team that is more tired (and your opponent will shit themselves when they think Weghorst is coming off for someone easier to defend against but then see the 98 Benzema walk onto the pitch).

I play in div 1 and I recommend anyone in the higher leagues to use him as a super sub, but obviously if you want to play him from the start you will still have a top-class finisher in your team. My issue with Benzema is that I just can not rely on him to get those clutch crucial goals like I do with a Weghorst or Perisic. If you want a comparison I would say this card feels more like his totw then his flashback, cause his flashback was broken. I was lucky enough to pack him untradeable but if you are thinking about buying him I would use your coins on someone else. In my opinion his price is that high due to hype and rarity but for me this card is just not that good.

I love Benzema in real life and he should 100% get Ballon d'Or but this card does not do him justice ingame.