🇧🇪 Eden Hazard

[Stingray 9,441]

Sifting through past pages, it's the same stuff that has plagued this board for majority of its lifespan. Hazard is never going to satisfy some of us if this continues. A verbose one, yes but needs to be added to the discussion.

(1) People expecting far too much too soon from Hazard by looking at him through the lens of Ronaldo and Messi. You....just....can't. Every player is different and every career takes different routes. Ronaldo and Messi have been at big clubs their entire careers. They've been playing Champions league since they were 18, making deep runs into the knock-out phases. Hell, both had even won the thing at 23. Hazard on the other hand has only played 2 seasons of Champions league in his ENTIRE career. He's only been in the knock-out phase one time in his career and that was last season were he also got injured as well. The Champions league is the highest level of football and Hazard has been unlucky (for various reasons, club, injuries etc) not to have played a lot in that competition yet. It's no surprise his development as a player is slower than Ronaldo and Messi. This is an incredibly important point.

There's also the fact that he's spent majority of his career in the French league while Ronaldo and Messi have been in two of the best leagues in the world for all their careers. This again is going to affect development and status as player as the French league doesn't offer the stiffest of opposition, to say the least. Ronaldinho and to a lesser extent, Zidane only showed their full class when they moved to better leagues. Like Jose said, "give him time".

(2) Overrating players from other clubs and underrating our own. This also applies to other players but especially to Hazard. Case in point, Robben has an outstanding World Cup and all of a sudden, he's the player Hazard should aspire to be. Bale scores in the Champions league final (despite doing nothing all game) and Hazard should be more like Bale. I even read someone put Bale in the same category as Ronaldo and Messi when making this comment. James freaking Rodriguez is amazing for Colombia and Hazard should apply himself more. And on and on and on.

(3) Criticizing him for being "inconsistent". The opposite is infact the case and the meaning of the world has become lost in football circles . There is a difference between being an inconsistent player (i.e Nani) and having a bad game/not performing at your normal level for a brief period. You can't be inconsistent and be considered a world class player or even a good one. Hazard, for such a young player has been considered a consistent player all through his career. He was certainly far more consistent at 23 than a certain Arjen Robben was. How quickly we forget. The inconsistent label was unfairly thrown at him in his first season in English football by the media hacks. It was his first season at the club, of course he was going to be shaky in his performances. All his achievements for Lille were simply thrown under the bus. Luckily, his performance level last season shut a lot of mouths in the media and we no longer hear a lot of that. But unfortunately, a small minority of forum members still repeat that nonsense.

(4) Not being a "leader". This apparently is the new one. A 23 year old player in his 3rd season with us is all of a sudden supposed to lead. I wonder why the same isn't demanded from some of his other teammates. And the big games that Hazard did lead in are not spoken of or simply forgotten. Let's forget Man City away and remember Crystal Palace away. Makes sense.

Bravo

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

Ronaldo is a short term solution.

so is hazard. As soon as madrid come in he'll be off.

[stroey 2,525]

so is hazard. As soon as madrid come in he'll be off.

Yeah it's a crucial year, if he doesn't sign an extension he will only have 2 years left on his contract.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Why can Sterling, Neymar and Reus etc play #10 effectively but Hazard can't? I know he was amazing for Lille in that role but it's never worked for him at Chelsea. The last time I remember him playing that role was in the 2nd half against PSG where he was completely invisible which was a stark contrast from the 1st half where he was the best player on the pitch.

[iseah100 5,612]

so is hazard. As soon as madrid come in he'll be off.

What? Why?

[The Skipper 20,609]

Why can Sterling, Neymar and Reus etc play #10 effectively but Hazard can't? I know he was amazing for Lille in that role but it's never worked for him at Chelsea. The last time I remember him playing that role was in the 2nd half against PSG where he was completely invisible which was a stark contrast from the 1st half where he was the best player on the pitch.

Because our number 10 is not your traditional number 10. In our system... We require something different from our number 10.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Because our number 10 is not your traditional number 10. In our system... We require something different from our number 10.

Can you explain further?

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Can you explain further?

"I think now football is finished with the number 10 role. You have to play with two wingers and one striker. And I have to do more.”

Eden Hazard

[The Skipper 20,609]

Can you explain further?

The number 10 role in our system is unorthodox. If you look at the skill set of the players we play there the most (Oscar and Willian), they aren't the most creative guys in our team or the best goal getters - they are there because they provide balance to the rest of the team.

Their main task is not to create or cause havoc in the attacking third like your traditional number 10 does. Their role includes being the link player in the attacking third - i.e. providing the likes of Fabregas and Hazard (or Hazard and Costa/Luis and Hazard once Luis has settled in) the option to create passing triangles, dropping deeper to allow Fabregas to create things without worrying too much about his defensive responsibility (basically cover), whilst also leading the high press with our striker during the first phase of the high press. Creating, scoring etc. is secondary to the main task. They are essentially required to be all over the pitch to help with attacking, defending and pressing, in almost every area on the pitch, and help maintain the shape of our team tactically. Our #10 has to be an all rounder and that's exactly what someone like Oscar is.

Hazard's skill set would be wasted there in our current system. He's much more of an attacking threat out wide for us where he'll have more space to operate and do what he's best at - 1 on 1 dribbling, going past his man, creating and occasionally scoring goals. That's his main task, whereas helping out his left back and his defensive work rate is secondary. In the middle he would have to do a lot more of the latter and that would absolutely detract from his brilliance out wide in the current system Mourinho has implemented here.

[Nike 373]

Why can Sterling, Neymar and Reus etc play #10 effectively but Hazard can't? I know he was amazing for Lille in that role but it's never worked for him at Chelsea. The last time I remember him playing that role was in the 2nd half against PSG where he was completely invisible which was a stark contrast from the 1st half where he was the best player on the pitch.

England sucks.

Brazil sucked with neymar as the 10. Neymar was a lot better player out wide and Brazil was better when he was there as well.

Reus can play 10 for Chelsea moreso than hazard.

People that would fit the n10 role for Chelsea is Modric and thats it. Maybe Thiago

[Nike 373]

Why would RM sign Hazard when they already have Jese coming through?

jese fits rm moreso than hazard does. IF anyone, its going to be Reus that takes Cristiano spot at Madrid.

[Styles 9,790]

Hazard is too good for the Madrid circus.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I dont think #10 role will be gone. But the player who will operate as #10 will have to do much more than just create.

[iseah100 5,612]

Madrid can fuck themselves .

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2252418/Eden-Hazard-wants-to-Real-Madrid-says-Christian-Benteke.html
http://www.ftbpro.com/posts/omar.hamouda/720071/eden-hazard-says-he-would-not-be-able-to-refuse-an-offer-from-real-madrid

Unless a new contract is agreed by next summer he is likely to leave and this could be his last season with us.

[Barbara 15,149]

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.

It wasn't Eden who said it, he would never say something like that. It was someone here (just before my post). What I said about him is that I think is that sometimes his speeches don't match.Saying he wants to win the Balon d'Or and be the best player in the world and work hard for it to happen is something he's said in the past and without sounding arrogant. It showed ambition and I liked it. Now saying he's seemingly happy that someone else has to step up - it doesn't matter if scoring or assisting - doesn't match the first speech. Can you see a discrepancy between those two speeches and his goals? Nobody has to be Messi or Ronaldo talent-wise, scoring-wise, but everyone can step up to be their team's star and the man who wins them matches. I do think he lacks a bit of drive, but he's young, and I'm willing to wait, I just said I'm not too emphatic about my predictions about him because I don't know if he has the mentality a player like Cris and Messi have. I was comparing their attitude, I didn't touch talent (said many brazilians were talented and never reached their potential because they had the wrong mentality), I didn't touch goal scoring (never even mentioned it in any of my posts), it was all about having the mentality in addition to the talent (his relief about not being the guy that will win matches is worrying for his development). I see much less talent in Bale, but also much more hunger and balls.

My point about his bad form at the end of the season (and early in the season too) is just so people can be a little more realistic about him - I never meant we lost the league because of him, but when we needed him the most, he wasn't there. So wasn't Oscar, so wasn't Ramires, so weren't our strikers (those had never been there anyway). 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. He did his part, but only for a while - as did many others - but he didn't do it consistently - as didn't many others. He didn't have a great season. He had a great streak between November/December until early February (do people even realize that this doesn't correspond to even half of a season?). From March on he wasn't productive, he slowly faded until he go injured around mid-April.

If someone who's never watched Chelsea in their life came to this forum, the feeling they would get from most posts here would be: Hazard was a hell of a player, carried the team and we didn't win the league because we didn't have strikers, because Oscar had a horrible second half of the season, because Ramires had a terrible second half of the season, because our FBs didn't support the attack, because Cech had some important failures, etc... Those things are true, but the Hazard part is a lie. I know it's something new for some people and many others don't accept it at all, but 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. A lot of people are saying we should read Excalibur's post, but I didn't and I won't. I know there's probably a lot of right things there, but the problem is Hazard became a myth in this forum that can't be ever criticized without people overreacting.

The rest of the team had ups and downs, but Hazard - because of the mouthwatering style - is always labeled as this amazing, complete player, when he isn't yet and he gets credit for a lot of things he didn't do - such as having an amazing season. I want more from him this season, the same way I want from Oscar, Schurrle and Willian. They can - and hopefully - will be more productive and consistent. I even said in my second post that if he checked all the right boxes and still didn't win the award, it'd be okay. I don't think he's going to be a scoring machine, but at this point, based on his previous season, he won't be an assist machine either. He needs to step up and be more consistent, like all our young players. And it's okay to demand that from the others, but it causes a problem every time someone mentions the same about Hazard...

[DanishBlue 426]

I hope he stays for many years but at least we will get Bale money for him if he leaves.

We can get some very good players for that kind of money so it's not the biggest problem imo.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

I hope he stays for many years but at least we will get Bale money for him if he leaves.

We can get some very good players for that kind of money so it's not the biggest problem imo.

Also replacing his 10-15 goals/assists is easy if we get a good replacement in, someone like Reus/Gritzemann/Alexis Sanchez quality is more than enough, not to mention huge changes left to maybe sign a top striker/cb IF needed.

[Azul 1,615]

Also replacing his 10-15 goals/assists is easy if we get a good replacement in, someone like Reus/Gritzemann/Alexis Sanchez quality is more than enough, not to mention huge changes left to maybe sign a top striker/cb IF needed.

Hazard is an important player, I'd trade him for nobody.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

Thorgan can play #10 .