Belgiannutt

Why not ? Zola was 30 when he arrived at Chelsea and stayed untill he was 37. While Hazard is still only 23. He's got about 10 years ( would then still only be 33) to improve. I mean just think about that for a second 10 years worth of PL and CL experience. How good do you think Hazard can get with that ? Decision making and positional play are things that usually improve a lot the older a player gets. I'm with Special Juan i think Hazard will be better then Zola. Always found this video funny. Dennis Wise and Zola are talking about their time at Chelsea. They show the clip of his dribble vs Carragher and Zola talks about after he did that he couldn't touch the ball for the next 2 minutes as they were all trying to kick the sh*t out of him. Other funny stuff in there aswell. Like how Wise taught Zola bad english words and then told him they were used to greet someone. Or how Zola had an english book so he could learn English and Wise tore some pages out of the book so that the story would make no sense what so ever.

Hmm think it's gonna be Willian starting instead of Oscar. Willian's got more pace and is better at taking on players. More suited to counter attacking.

Was really suprised by his off the ball movement. We all know he's excellent at beating players but now he was combining that with some great off the ball movement. I mean normally he just comes towards the ball but now there were multiple times where he was making off the ball runs, trying to get in behind the Swansea defence. He also seemed a lot more eager to shoot at goal. Been looking at that Hazard vs Swansea video and he could have easily gotten 2 goals (maybe even 3) if he had taken his shots a bit better and had a little bit more luck with them.

FFS stop putting words in my mouth. Where in my post did i say my opinion was a fact ? Anyway done with this debate. Tired of constantly having to write blocs of text and you're getting a bit to riled up for my liking.

No i don't. Again i think you're just reading waay too much into it. Hazard never said that he didn't wanna score anymore just that with Costa up front he can focus more on assists. To me that means that he thinks Costa is a better finisher then our strikers last season and that he'll be able to get more assists this season. "his relief about not being the guy that will win matches is worrying for his development" Honestly where are you getting this ? I've read that interview 10 times and can't find a single thing about Hazard saying he feels pressure or that he feels relieved not being the guy that will win us matches. "The way people talk here it was as if Hazard has done his part and the rest of the team didn't and THAT is ABSOLUTELY unfair" But it is fair to single out Hazard and say "when the team needed him the most in the title run he went MIA" ? If you're gonna single out Hazard then i'm definitely going to bring up the fact that the rest of our attacking players went MIA for most of the season. Hazard has flaws just like any other player and addressing them isn't a sin or a crime and shouldn't led people to be lectured. No one is saying Hazard doesn't have flaws and addressing them isn't a sin or a crime however you should have realized by now that people have different opinions. What you find a flaw other people might not. Hazard's mentality for example you find it a flaw, i don't. Difference of opinion. No one is lecturing anyone. People are debating, this is a forum after all. "A lot of people are saying we should read Excalibur's post, but I didn't and I won't" Don't you think it's kinda insulting to be ignoring someone's post just because you might not like what they have written down ? It's was a good post with good argument. It's worth reading. "the problem is Hazard became a myth in this forum that can't be ever criticized without people overreacting." Please, Hazard gets plenty of criticism. Only difference with other player topics is that here when you criticize you have to be capable of actually backing it up with facts.

I think you and other people are just misinterpreting his interview and his comments about wanting to win the ballon d'or and his attempt to reach the heights of Messi, Ronaldo. Hazard has always considered himself to be more of a creator then a goalscorer. I think he's right about that and i think the majority of the Chelsea fans do too. It's basically what Skipper said a couple of pages back : he'll never be a goalscoring machine. I think Hazard realizes that. He knows that if he goes head to head, in terms of goals, with Ronaldo or Messi ( and other more natural goalscorers then Hazard) he is going to lose no matter how hard he tries, no matter how "consistent" he gets). He simply lacks certain abilities to be able to compete with themin that aspect. However his abillities are far more suited for creating chances and getting a sh*t load of assists and that's exactly what he's aiming for. I think he's a lot more likely to get 25+ assists then 25+ goals. For the rest all i'm seeing in that interview is Hazard complimenting Costa and Fabregas. Also i don't see anywhere in that interview where he says that he felt huge pressure last season. "When the team needed him the most in the title run in he went MIA scoring literally only from penalties and assisting once or twice." Don't you think that's incredibly unfair towards Hazard considering his top form the months before were the only thing that kept us in the title race for that long ? I think the lack of end product from our other Am's and our strikers ended up costing us the league not Hazard. "But for some he's already better than Ronaldo or just behind him and Messi when he isn't" Please could you show me the quote of the person that said Hazard is already better then Ronaldo. I check the forums regularly and never seen anyone post that.

Well Real can jog on. They can try their luck on Reus. I hear he has nice and fluffy hair. Sorry for double post.

Haha you got me. When i read that first part i was like " WHAT ! "

How exactly does quoting Robguima saying Coutinho isn't good at tracking back prove that Lechels believes Coutinho has no workrate ? Lechels never said anything about Coutinho. Only thing he said was that he (Neymar) spends more time rolling around the pitch (then he does tracking back)

Pogba would just replace Oscar in our system nothing else would change about our system. Don't really understand why Fabregas would have to change positions. No offense but Pogba is the better player of the 2. I don't think there's much debating that. You can say Oscar is better in terms of tactical awareness and obedience but at the end of the day Pogba is the better player and it's not that close either. Your right our team doesn't "need" any improvements, apart from maybe a CB ( depending on how JT plays this season), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still try to improve our squad. Not every signing we make has to be out of pure necessity. Pogba would be a luxury signing but since when aren't we allowed to make luxury signings ? Ofcourse we need to wait and see what this season brings but if Oscar plays the way he did last season then i wouldn't put it past us to go for a replacement (like Pogba for example) next season. Edit - Also If i'm not mistaken Pogba only has 2 years left on his contract. If he doesn't sign a contract extension this season then he'll only have 1 season left on his contract next season. So Juventus would basically be forced to sell him and would have to lower their asking price a bit.

I don't know if i'd really classify Oscar as a 10. His role reminds me more off a box to box then a 10. Wouldn't be that big of a change as you're making it out to be. We're already playing a sort of crossbreed between a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1. It would be a lot of money but looking at how balanced our squad is now i don't really see where we would need to invest in next season. So if we wanted to we would be able to go for an expensive signing.

No they don't. Busquets is a DM tasked with sitting in front of the back four and protecting them. That's not something Oscar does. Closest thing we have to a " Busquets" would be Matic. Different systems though, us and Barca. We play with a more fluid midfield while Barca play a more rigid midfield (role wise). Ramires and Willian fit the role in their own way. Ramires offers more defensively but less going forward while Willian is probably the one that comes closest to the way Oscar plays that role. In comparison to Oscar i think Willian offers a little bit less in build up play but a little bit more going forward (ability to take on players, ...). Think you're not giving Ramires and Willian enough credit. They really are just as good as Oscar in "that" role but like i said in their own way.

Weird comparison. Wouldn't really say Oscar's a key player for us. He has an important role in our system but we've got Willian and Ramires that can play that role just as good (in their own way).

If Oscar has a similar season as last season then i wouldn't be suprised if we bought a Pogba, Vidal type of replacement next season. More of a physical, ball recuperating midfielder but still good on the ball to help out in the build up play. Don't think we'd sell him though we'd probably just keep him as squad depth unless a crazy bid came in.

B

Last season we didn't have Filipe Luis on the bench. Azpi was excellent defensively last season but didn't offer anything going forward. He was excused from that as we simply didn't have another left back that could offer us defensive solidity AND offer us something going forward. Now we do. That really is a weak argument. If you go by that logic then we can stop debating about everything and just close this forum. Mourinho isn't automatically right. He is human. Not every decision he makes is the right one.

Only reason we were the best defensive unit last year was because of our defensive (rigid) way of playing. Luis is the better option on the left. For a starter he actually is a left back and he'll offer us a lot more going forward while still doing his job defensively. Luis has proved himself as one of the best LB in the world last season but by all means let's keep benching him for a right back that offers nothing going forward.

What are you talking about ? Noone is blaming Oscar.

Well that was my point. The rest is more of an Oscar vs Ramires debate. Both offer something entirely different. Ball retention and buildup play vs stamina and driving runs into space. I do think that whether it was Oscar or Ramires in our midfield on Saturday, we would have still gotten dominated by Everton. Oscar might have offered more build up play and ball retention but Everton would have still been all over us.

I merely stated that Ramires does offer us drive and penetration with his runs but only in certain games where the games gets stretched and space opens up. Nowhere in my post did i say Ramires was THE solution to all our drive and penetration problems just that he can offer that in the right circimstances. It was, Everton did well to get back quickly and we didn't do that great on the counterattack but there was space to exploit and Ramires did at times offers us drive and penetration with his runs.

Don't really understand what you find so funny about that ? It's true. Ramires does offer us drive and penetration. When games get stretched and space opens up Ramires is excellent pushing forward as he has loads of pace and likes to drive into space when it's there. The Everton game was that kind of game.

I think it's the official premier league site that doesn't credit the own goal as a Hazard assist. Think the majority of the people take their statistics from there and consider them to be the more "official" stats. I understand that but lets face it if Hazard doesn't come up with the right numbers, at the end of the season, people are gonna be complaining that he didn't have good enough season. Now it seems like it's the only thing that matters, numbers.

Our NT manager said today that Hazard is struggling with an old injury which is why he didn't call him up for the NT. Apparently, because of the injury, Hazard can barely walk after playing a game. Not sure how i feel about us playing Hazard when he's suffering from an injury. Also doesn't seem like it's so "minor" since he can barely walk after games. Hope he takes this time to rest up a bit. Still a long season to go.

Yeah I know what situation you mean. I think he hesitates (he actually pretends to go for it ) because Lukaku 's still in motion. A lot of the times Hazard beats players by causing them to stand still. By the time he's got Lukaku standing still Coleman's already covering the space in behind Lukaku. If you wanna see it again here's a video of it. Happens around 1:32 .