Eden Hazard

[BlueLion. 21,491]

He carried us in the second half of last season. So...well.....I'll leave it at that.

And Fabregas and Costa carried us for the first half of last season, but all three are guilty of lacklustre performances.

[DYC. 7,542]

And Fabregas and Costa carried us for the first half of last season, but all three are guilty of lacklustre performances.

Let's not rewrite history. Hazard and Matic were just as crucial in the first half of last season. Oscar played a big role as well (even though he is quite unpopular). Cesc and Diego were more noticeable because one scored goals and the other assisted.

Hazard's performances in the second half of the season stood out more because the form of others dropped (significantly).

[El P. 1,354]

Let's just hope those goals will give him needed confidence to kick start his season. Maybe not best of performances, but goals can always be a good thing for a player, especially for him who wants to "score more".

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

And Fabregas and Costa carried us for the first half of last season, but all three are guilty of lacklustre performances.

Absolutely agree, however the matter that generated my post was another: "Hazard hides on the big occasions"

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Diego Costa definitely did not "carry us" in the first half of the season and neither did Fabregas. Not after the first 5/6 games anyway. If I had the time I'd go back into this thread and pull up multiple quotes of posters who thought Hazard was our best player at the time. That was simply a team effort, the entire front 5 were on form throughout that period which is why we were being touted as potentially the new invincibles.

As for the PSG game, he was far and away our best player in that match.

I still cannot believe he came out from that game with the most criticism. Matic delivered the worst midfield performance you'll ever see. Fabregas wasn't too far behind, Costa got dominated by Silva/Luiz & resorted to kicking/pushing opponents, Ivanovic got destroyed by DL for the equalizer & Terry/Cahill were marking each other instead of Thiago Silva for the gamewinner lol.

Btw, hasn't the major criticism of Hazard always been he doesn't win enough games with goals? Now he wins two successive games with goals the tune has suddenly changed & we're back to criticizing his all around game (which is laughable lol). At least stay consistent.

[DYC. 7,542]

Diego Costa definitely did not "carry us" in the first half of the season and neither did Fabregas. Not after the first 5/6 games anyway. If I had the time I'd go back into this thread and pull up multiple quotes of posters who thought Hazard was our best player at the time. That was simply a team effort, the entire front 5 were on form throughout that period which is why we were being touted as potentially the new invincibles.

As for the PSG game, he was far and away our best player in that match.

I still cannot believe he came out from that game with the most criticism. Matic delivered the worst midfield performance you'll ever see. Fabregas wasn't too far behind, Costa got dominated by Silva/Luiz & resorted to kicking/pushing opponents, Ivanovic got destroyed by DL for the equalizer & Terry/Cahill were marking each other instead of Thiago Silva for the gamewinner lol.

Btw, hasn't the major criticism of Hazard always been he doesn't win enough games with goals? Now he wins two successive games with goals the tune has suddenly changed & we're back to criticizing his all around game (which is laughable lol). At least stay consistent.

I remember that very well. I also remember treble/quadruple talk. How times have changed.

[Jase 43,479]

On current form he should be warming the bench for both club and country. More interested in hitting the deck and winning fouls at the moment. Yes he starts seasons slowly but Jason is absolutely spot on when he points out that Eden looks devoid of even the one "wow moment" every 90 minutes, which he can normally produce as a minimum.

Don't you mean Steve?

Hazard does tend to start the season slowly but if he truly wants to become one of the greats, he can't afford that. He needs to start campaigns on a high note and maintain that consistency throughout the season. It's not easy to achieve that but he can certainly contribute/play well more on a regular basis than what he's been doing.

[WNDS 502]

Diego Costa definitely did not "carry us" in the first half of the season and neither did Fabregas. Not after the first 5/6 games anyway. If I had the time I'd go back into this thread and pull up multiple quotes of posters who thought Hazard was our best player at the time. That was simply a team effort, the entire front 5 were on form throughout that period which is why we were being touted as potentially the new invincibles.

As for the PSG game, he was far and away our best player in that match.

I still cannot believe he came out from that game with the most criticism. Matic delivered the worst midfield performance you'll ever see. Fabregas wasn't too far behind, Costa got dominated by Silva/Luiz & resorted to kicking/pushing opponents, Ivanovic got destroyed by DL for the equalizer & Terry/Cahill were marking each other instead of Thiago Silva for the gamewinner lol.

Btw, hasn't the major criticism of Hazard always been he doesn't win enough games with goals? Now he wins two successive games with goals the tune has suddenly changed & we're back to criticizing his all around game (which is laughable lol). At least stay consistent.

I agree with pretty much all of this, except for maybe the part about Fabregas' contribution during the first half of last season; unlike Costa, whose rate of goal-scoring dropped-off quite considerably after the first two or three months, I think he made hugely positive key contributions to the majority of the matches we played up until around January of this calendar year. I definitely agree that many fans seem to have forgotten that Hazard was actually playing superbly for the initial months of the season, even if he wasn't getting the stats for himself to show it; Fabregas and Costa WERE getting the stats, and so their contributions were noticed far more readily.

Only Hazard, Terry, and Azpilicueta maintained the high individual standards that were set during the first half of the season, and Willian was arguably the only player in the starting 11 to perform better in the second half of the season than the first (he made a very important contribution overall, but was our most replaceable player in the starting line-up over the first few months). As such, a narrative has developed that Hazard was at his best in the second half of last season, when it was actually a case of others around him dropping their levels of performance from January onward. Even against PSG Hazard's individual level didn't actually drop all that much; he was simply limited in what he could do because he was the ONLY outfielder who was playing well that game, with even the otherwise in-form Terry, Azpilicueta, and Willian giving poor displays.

Anyway, my own initial post yesterday was praising Hazard for managing to turn a very disappointing all-round display into a match-winning one. The ability to do this on a more regular basis when he's off-form is pretty much the ONLY thing he needs to improve upon at the moment. Given that he is generally a very consistent player who is not off-form all that often (and is generally capable of playing well whilst the team itself isn't), it's not something he should find himself having to do with great frequency.

[Ukasha 1]

Is early days yet, but imo mou uses them a lot, atleast squad rotation will help the regain their forms

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

Guy comes to the new league and is voted in top 5 PFA Player of the Year in each of the 3 seasons he played, oh come on stop this bullshit here, there are far more players that need to improve themself. Hazard will be fine and I completely don't understand how they say that he is playing some of the worst football, yet somehow I see those moments, against Swansea when we went to 10 he turned to beast and was sole creative source in the last 30 minutes, against West Brom he mastered time wasting and keeping possession to Didier's level, against Barcelona he scored brilliant individual goal that only few are capable of. Give me a break that he plays crap, yes it's not his best level but it's not the worst, still I feel he's one of the best players in the team.

Now I watch this highlight from PSG game, I'm fuming that we can't provide anyone close to his level, in my opinion Hazard has infinite amount of excuses when he doesn't score/assist in bigger games while playing so positively and being sole source of any creativity and spark. We throwing fucking Ramires, Cuadrado and Salah at him, now that isn't funny at all, that's such a waste I can't contain myself. Bad memories, whenever we play big game and our shape in attack is called "Hazard" I'm hopeless, don't remind me this shit.

I think I never dismantle this idea that when we provide someone on Hazard talent-level in terms of technique, creativity, close control, dribbling and speed next to him he will score 30-40 goals in season. You know, he scored 20 goals in the league at the age of 20, the goals are in him.

[Barbara 15,149]

People's memory is becoming the biggest mystery in the universe at this pace. I don't understand how it works around here, it's fathomless

[Gilvorak 3,734]

People's memory is becoming the biggest mystery in the universe at this pace. I don't understand how it works around here, it's fathomless

Heard a poster claim Fabregas couldn't play the basic pass KDB did to Mertens in the build-up to his goal last night.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Don't you mean Steve?

Hazard does tend to start the season slowly but if he truly wants to become one of the greats, he can't afford that. He needs to start campaigns on a high note and maintain that consistency throughout the season. It's not easy to achieve that but he can certainly contribute/play well more on a regular basis than what he's been doing.

Sorry, all you mid-level management types sound the same

[sutro 1,026]

the level of goldfish memories is quite high here

[Blue Gino 377]

Eden was called the "worst player on the pitch" by Wilmots yet won the match for Belgium. Even Wilmots is being effected by the negativity of the forum ?

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Eden was called the "worst player on the pitch" by Wilmots yet won the match for Belgium. Even Wilmots is being effected by the negativity of the forum

He said 'maybe' he was, but the he kept him on anyway because he knew he could always do something special.

He also said he could have made 9 substitutions because everyone except Courtois was bad. It was truly a horrible match.

KDB called it the worst performance he was ever a part of. Hazard was struggling with himself the entire match, you could almost see him lose faith after the first hour.

This said, we should change managers obviously.

[Unionjack 7,531]

I really didn't like the excuse he gave that I just read when asked why everyone else has started the season better than us. Saying its because everyone wants to kill the champions. He coulda just said I dont know.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/603856/Eden-Hazard-Chelsea-news-everyone-wants-to-kill-us

[Gilvorak 3,734]

I just read De Bruyne earns significantly more money than Hazard. That can't be true can it? Hazard must have the worst agent in football if that's the case.