Maybe Benzema needs Jose’s love to shine

I’m not a big fan of Emmanuel Adebayor, so it’s no surprise that I think he isn’t Real Madrid’s answer to their goal scoring dilemma—I believe Karim Benzema is a better striker, and he deserves to start ahead of the on loan Manchester City man. The France international striker has consistently been “positive” to get the chance to shine at the Real Madrid; unfortunately he isn’t getting that chance as regularly as any striker worthy the name printed on the back of his jersey should. Strikers thrive on confidence, and Benzema is not any different but it appears as though Jose Mourinho is not so keen to get the best out of the former Lyon star forward just as he was with Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea. At Chelsea, Mourinho put all his faith in one man and that was Didier Drogba, and the fact that Shevchenko wasn’t his choice [but only a gift from Roman Abromovic], it didn’t bother him much that the Ukraine captain wasn’t improving. Shevchenko arrived at Stam ford Bridge on big money and a big price tag from AC Milan thanks to his ‘personal’ friendship with Chelsea Billionaire owner, Abromovic and not as Mourinho’s choice for a striker, so you can guess how the story ended. Now at Real Madrid, the ‘Special One’ insists that Benzema needs to improve to fulfill his true potential, which is absolutely fine, but whose duty is getting the best out of the players? The last time I checked, this was not only part of a coach’s responsibility but his top priority. It could be true that the France international has struggled to come to terms with playing for the biggest club in the world, which is a dream for every ambitious footballer but it’s also fair to say, he hasn’t been given a fair crack at things by Mourinho. When Mourinho knew that he was going to miss his main striker Gonzalo Higuain for a season early in the season, he demanded for cash to buy a new striker [to me this was an insult to Benzema], and when he went and brought in Adebayor, who was sulking at Man City for lack of playing time, it showed how low Mourinho thinks of Benzema. When the French striker came off the bench to score after 30 seconds in Madrid’s 1-1 draw with Lyon in the first-leg of their last 16 tie in the Champions League this week, Mourinho, instead of encouraging him in form of flattering him, chose to remind him to improve! “Everyone knows his potential which is impressive. But everyone knows, and he himself knows it, because he is an intelligent boy, that during matches he still needs to improve certain aspects,” the ‘Special One’ noted. But which one of his player doesn’t need to improve? Is it Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria, Carvalho, Alonso, Kaka or Adebayor? They all need to improve if Real Madrid is going to challenge Barcelona’s dominance, but the problem is all these get the chance to improve by playing every match, which cannot be said of Benzema, who now finds himself behind Adebayor. Looking at how he tries hard whenever he gets the chance, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that the man is doing his best. Like I said above, strikers thrive on confidence, which comes with playing more consistently. You can see that he’s working hard to earn more playing time, and I believe that the more he plays people will see what he’s capable of. I am sure he will succeed with Real Madrid, but only if Mourinho shows him some love and an arm on the shoulders. nku78@yahoo.com