k d luiz

and somehow people blame this on the defending responsibility he's assumed this season and I just can't link one thing to another...
The only problem a player who isn't used to press can have once they start doing it, is getting tired faster or more than they usually did. Hazard is supposed to be one of our faster players, so if he's pressing someone in the first third, maybe he won't be where he usually was (waiting in the second as he watched the game), but he's fast, he can win the ball in the first/second half and run with it, or he can receive a pass from who intercepted it. That (and getting tired) should be the only detractors on his play because he's defending.
What does defending have to do with the horrible ball control he showed in the perfect pass Oscar gave to him? I see people blaming Willian - who is short and not used to heading the ball - missing a sitter header, but I literally saw no one complaining about the ball that Hazard received that could have won us the game... but his first touch was so poor, that the only time in the match we actually had one splitting pass from our AMs was completely wasted.
I agree he's facing some confidence issues. I've touched that weeks (I guess months) ago in this thread when I said I wish he was more like Neymar in that aspect: just tried the dribble, if he misses a few of them, it's part of risk and the game, he'll probably be successful in a few others. When he receives the ball and does nothing with it, but pass backwards or to the side it has nothing to do with the defending responsibility he now has. And I can't think why pressing would affect his confidence either, so I think the problem is more on Hazard than on the tactics, but lately almost everyone blame the tactics and the manager for the players poor form. I'm not exempting Mourinho, it's part of his job work with his players for them to improve their form, but it's also laughable exempt a player like Hazard from his own bad shape. He's been average at most this season and maybe, just maybe, his defensive responsibility affected that, but it's not the biggest cause imo because it makes no sense. He continues to receive a huge amount of passes in the final third. Against Newcastle no other player received more passes in the final third than Hazard did (others matches too) and except those two occasions he and Mata pretended they were playing for Barcelona, he produced nothing... how can we blame that on defending responsibilities or tactics?

It seems to me that Hazard's problem is lack of football intelligence. He has all the tools but not the method to get the job done. Mata however is the opposite, with limited tools but high level of understanding of the game. Oscar seems to be more balanced out of the three hence is always in the starting 11.

It seems to me that Hazard's problem is lack of football intelligence. He has all the tools but not the method to get the job done. Mata however is the opposite, with limited tools but high level of understanding of the game. Oscar seems to be more balanced out of the three hence is always in the starting 11.