Christacinto

Respectfully, I find it unbecoming to pounce on Lukaku after for not having scored one game. I thought he had a decent performance despite getting no service and you cannot deny he was definitely weighing on their defence. Imo, he has the skill, a kick-ass mentality and a heart that pumps blue blood. What more can you want?

He nailed that penalty like it was De Bruyne's bird.

BREAKING NEWS: EDEN HAZARD IS CHARGED BY FA FOR SIGNING A NEW CONTRACT. HE FACE A 3 MATCH BAN.

Fixed*

Okay okay okay... This took me 481516025 years to make. Finally uploaded it on YouTube. I understand it's long BUT it's Eden Hazard ffs!! I'd really appreciate your support. But for now.... enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqRrEEVwe8g

My lady, you have understood everything there is to understand to fully appreciate the joy of supporting Eden Hazard.
Although he has always been a wonderful prospect, has known glory and fan expectations (more than fulfilled) since the age of 18, has been labellised best belgian player ever, has known fame, recognition, and money... Eden Hazard has always been loyal to who he is, as a human being, not as a football star. Friendly, humble, joyful... That's why he will never reach Messi or Ronaldo's goals stats level imo, he doesn't have "that" mentality, that ego. You have to want to crush others to reach their level, and Eden is incapable of that. That's why I will always respect him more than Ronaldo and Messi.
Also his family is everything for him ; his close family more than everything of course, then his team (great teammate to have, that goes without saying...), but I really think he has a larger definition of "family" of which his fans are a large part.
With his fans he has always been great. Accessible, joyful, and most of all very respectful. He left our club the best way possible, doing everything he could to help the club perfectly knowing the whole season that he wouldn't be there for the next. Like a true professional. During his transfer saga, which lasted a whole freaking year, media pushed him to go to PSG. Every post-match itw, every itw in fact was 80% about future transfer, 20% about his present football, present club. He repeatedly said that he would not go to PSG because in France his club was Lille. And he kept his promise despite all the media pressure and the huge wages that PSG offered.
Even today, when he has an interview with a french media, the PSG comes up. Here is what he said to La Voix du Nord, two weeks ago : "If I come back to France, it will be Lille ! It is my club in Ligue 1, I can't see myself playing for another one. Coming back to Lille, I don't know if it will be possible, but in football you never know."
And contrary to a certain Lampard, we Lille fans know we can blindly trust him, we will not be disappointed. If he says that he won't play for PSG, we know he will keep his promise. As for playing back in Lille's jersey, I can't see that happening before he's 34 but I will be so happy if it happens !!
Also, it's amazing how he has never done anything wrong in his carreer. The two main "scandals" in his professional life is eating a burger and kicking a ball under a ballboy, without touching him, say it all
There are many things that disgust me in modern football. Eden Hazard is one the main things that keep me attached to this sport.

If that's your point then it sadly isn't relevant to the discussion. As the discussion is about goals and a player's role. CR7 has a very different role in the Real side then Hazard has, which makes for difficult comparison. So if you want to say that CR7 played LW, well okay, but what of it? Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump. I know that wasn't relevant but it is equally true.

Hazard, Matic,fabregas, JT and Costa have to be rested against Derby. it's that simple

you're ruining the reputation French members have in this forum. Always thoughtful, smart, insightful, they're deeply missed when they are inactive, but you aren't doing us any favors.
The last pages of this thread make me want to vomit. If you guys don't think Hazard is great, that he still has a very high ceiling and that he's going to be one of football biggest star, there are always pages to post bollocks on Arsenal Mania, Blue Moon, Red Cafe, RAWK, etc... they'll be happy to have you.

For what it's worth, was voted "Man of the Match" tonight against Iceland. Excelled throughout the night,
Though he was given a hand by some extremely shabby defending by our back 4.

For what it's worth, was voted "Man of the Match" tonight against Iceland. Excelled throughout the night,
Though he was given a hand by some extremely shabby defending by our back 4.

You could tell his off the ball movement was improving from the start of the season, you could see he was getting into a lot more goal scoring positions as well. He wasn't scoring, but I said at the time, he's getting in good positions, sooner or later he'll start scoring, but it's getting worrying now.
If he was even marginally better at converting chances he'd be sitting on 10 goals by now. He's gotten better this year, he's our best player. If he wants to win team and individual trophies he's gotta start making it count. Tonight should have been an all-time performance by a player in a chelsea shirt, he did everything, he was amazing but he fucked up easy chances. I'm pissed for his sake more than Chelsea. We can recover, but if we truly want to win the big trophies, we need him.
Rant over.
Come on Eden!

Best player on the field but he should've scored twice.It wasnt the first match this season where he almost could've won it by himself but didnt. Thats the difference between very good and legend. He could use some Rockyesque- Karatekid-like-goalscoring training.

> 'WAHH WAHH Chelsea don't play any youngsters!'
> Chelsea start playing best young GK in the world
> 'WAHH maybe Cech will be better because of his experience'

Box-to-box?!?!? No chance, Thorgan is just as weak as Mata is on the ball. Can't see him making it here to be honest. Doesn't have his brothers strength or skill
That's not to say he won't become a good player but I doubt it will be here especially under Jose.

The best!!!

My word, the amount of people here that just follow your rant and click "like" without even thinking. I mean, I'm not a fan of Wilmots either, but how on earth can you claim that he is "clearly not capable" of being Belgium's head coach when:
1. He got Belgium into the World Cup for the first time since 2002.
2. We reached the QF of that World Cup for only the second time in our history.
3. He achieved a historical 26 out of 30 (8 wins 2 draws) in the WC qualifiers. Not a single loss.
4. He brought Belgium to the 4th (!!) position in the FIFA rakning, which is just absurd for a small ass country like Belgium.
5. He started off with a decent 4 out of 6 in the EC qualifiers. Yes, drawing away against Bosnia is a NORMAL result.
6. He has only lost 1 (one!!!) competitive match with Belgium so far, QF World Cup against Argentina.
I'll tell you now, not many coaches can show you results like that!
I understand that you have personal problems with Wilmost, but really to claim he's uncapable of the job with that kind of merit, is just insanely stupid. Insanely!
Or is all of your frustration built on the away draw against Bosnia? You really thought we'd crush them Andorra style? Grow up! Belgium has a decent national team, but we're not exactly the NBA Dream Team if you know what I mean.

I don’t think you answered my question, Barbara. Give me concrete examples of instances where that happened? Besides the opening goal against Everton, I can’t think of any other situations that might validate the bold statement.
I’m surprised that some haven’t noticed that Eden, this season, has been stepping up and taking more responsibility. He still has room for improvement, after all he’s a 23 yr old playing under a defensively stringent manager - his game isn’t going to be flawless. But I’ll tell you what, the times when the team has been under the cosh and we’ve needed someone to “step-up” the player that has done that consistently has been Eden. In the first half, the trio of Cesc, Costa and Hazard were anonymous, but it was Eden that took charge of the ball, began taking players on, drawing fouls and soon after the rest of the team followed suit and raised their game. Against Everton we were under immense pressure at 2-1, I was pissing myself thinking that they were going to equalize. Cesc and Matic weren’t controlling the game, Costa was losing every single aerial duel.... we were seriously under the cosh. One of the players had to step up and create something out of nothing because Everton were very close to equalizing and out of nowhere Hazard made the dribble that forced the own goal. It was a crucial moment.
In every game we’ve played this season, he’s been influential and has made a difference at crucial times - whether it be taking players on, creating a goal or scoring, Eden has stepped up when his team has needed him. He's taken charge in ways that Cesc hasn't (and we really shouldn't be expecting him to because he's still new to the team). It’s mind boggling that some can’t see that. It's even more mind boggling that you would suggest that I'm trying to create a competition by stating that Hazard has been our most pivotal attacking player. Seriously? The only one treating this like a competition is you chica, it ain't me. Think someone is majorly crushin' on cescy.

I guess it depends on your definition of "carrying our attack." He's not doing all the offensive work but there were times where costa and cesc had no influence in the game until Hazard did something that allowed them to get a foothold in the game. I don't think half of the assists Cesc has made so far this season would have come about without Hazard's contributions. He's been such a huge catalyst and it's not an exaggeration ( to use your words) to say that he's been carrying us. That's not to say that there aren't other key players but Hazard' has been pivotal in these past 6 games.

95 % passes completed (team highest), no turnovers, dispossessed only once. Pay attention or don't comment pls.
Yes maybe, just maybe he comes really close in dribbling since he actually got twice the amount of succesful dribbles than the second best player so far this season in the EPL while simultaneously keeping the amount of unsuccesful dribbles low (67% succesful).
Also had the highest amount of key passes from open play last season so I think he's pretty good at "assisting". And please define "total skills" lol.

Wouldn't it make more sense comparing (seems that's all everyone does lately) him to players his age playing for clubs of similar quality instead of 1) Messi, 2) Ronaldo, 3) Legends of the game who in most cases became greats in the latter part of their career?

I don't the team morale is going be affected by Hazard getting $200k pounds/wk as that's the reality of the situation. He's 23 he was the Young PFA player of the year, finished 2nd to Suarez in the PFA player of the year awards, was Chelsea's POY for 2013-2014. He's been in PL best XI the last two years, was one of the last 23 for the ballon d'Or.
He was 2x young player of year at Lille and 2x player of the year at Lille. Lead Lille to its first league title since 1954-1955.
He was #3 in Jersey sales in 2013-2014.
He's Chelsea's most marketable player.
The salary is a lot but warranted based in performance and marketability.

People who wanted him to 'lead' more ... are you happy? He took responsibility and played a massive part in digging us out of the hole we found ourselves in 20 minutes down. I got the tingles whenever he ran with the ball today.