His stats say otherwise, but his fame as a nº9 who can't deliver has stuck to him like glue. When he leaves Real, he will be remembered as a player with great style but who never came up with the goods. Having Cristiano Ronaldo as his partner has also not helped to rid him of this myth.
For the fifth season running, Benzema has scored more than twenty goals. This time round, after scoring a brace against Granada, he is on 22. Not many forwards can boast such regularity. Moreover, of his last eight seasons, two of them being when he played for Lyon, he managed to pass the 20 mark in seven of them.
The Frenchman's average strike rate for Real Madrid presently stands at 22 goals a season. This year, he has already reached this figure, with a handful of games still to be played. He may even manage to break his record – the 32 goals he scored in Mourinho's second season at the helm. In total, so far he has found the back of the net 134 times in the six seasons he has played for 'Los Blancos'.
Goals aside, the figures show that Benzema does a lot more than just go for goal. For a man not considered as an out-and-out nº9, his strike rate is more than acceptable. What is also impressive is the number of assists that he has made. Again, very few forwards can match him in the number of assists achieved every season. To date, as well as his 134 goals, we can add his 85 passes that have resulted in a teammate scoring.
