Eden Hazard

[Milan 17,862]

20 minutes ago, Fernando said:

That second goal kind of remind me of Romario style. Small like Kun, but great close control and good shooting skills like Ronaldo. 

This is what was missing from his game, to take more shots. 

As Messi and Ronaldo go down because of age, Hazard will move up.

Is definitely his time!

And so far, Antonio Conte seems to be the great man for Eden. Under Mourinho, it was not like this... But under Conte, he can certainly reach a new level.

[Special Juan 27,457]

Under Jose he was a back up LB, under Conte he is free roaming danger man.

[Barbara 15,149]

24 minutes ago, DYC. said:

His mentality is shifting. Instead of moving towards the ball, taking that bit of time to weigh his options, dribbling to create space for others looking for the open man when attacking the goal he is now moving aggressively towards goal, takes shots, dribbles to create space for himself and is less interested in creating for his team mates. From creator to finisher. As his confidence grows, we might see him averaging 4, 5 shots a game.

It doesn't necessarily make him a better player but it will certainly make him more popular.

That second goal was ridiculously good.

I came to post about the same lines.

But I do think it makes him a better player. He's at that stage of changing where one goes all the way through the other side. Once he develops his killer instinct and becomes more selfish (in a good way and something many of us have urged him to do since he's here), he will have both skills under his belt and he will balance them more. I think he's adding that final thing his game missed and once he's fully comfortable in this role and mentality, I think he will mix up better both the creator and the finisher approaches and we will end up being a complete player. In Eden's case the saying is absolutely accurate: the best is yet to come.

This is what has set him apart from Messi, Ronaldo and more recently Neymar in the Balon D'Or contest. All the other three have always been goal oriented and that's something Eden has been lacking. He's probably more talented than the others (hard call with Messi, but I'll let my bias and my dislike for the Argentinean to move the scale towards Hazard and I'm shameless about it), but they are more deadly, threatening and decisive than Eden has been - even at this best season for us (many of his goals still used to come from penalties). At the end of the day what brings a player to the level of those other three is their ability to win matches for their teams when it's tough and Eden has been instrumental for our early leads. We are yet to take long to score and see how our tactical plan will work in such circumstances - especially if the opponent does what Everton did and give us the ball, but the reason why we haven't been in that position yet is mostly because Hazard put us ahead in the scoreline directly or indirectly in most of those matches (if not all, my memory may be failing me, so I won't set this on stone yet). This takes him to the next level. He's playing in a different position, occupying a different portion of the pitch and moving and acting in a different way. It only makes him a better player imo (although maybe not as entertaining as his plastic plays and dribbles may be less present now, the jury is still out about that).

I can honestly say I have NEVER wished, claimed and asked for him to be sold, quite the opposite, always said he was going through a bad patch, but being the player he is we should keep him. Well, now we should add more years to his contract because I bet at the end of this season teams like Real are really going to come big for him and I hope we can have the means to keep him.

[Captain Ahmed 528]

Hallelujah

[BlueLyon 9,359]

22 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Under Jose he was a back up LB, under Conte he is free roaming danger man.

And the thing is he is not only better in attack, but also in defense. You cant be absolutely top player (even attackers)  if you are not willing to defend  (because IMO team comes first and you have to contribute to team, not just yourself) And Conte made Eden a player who presses opponents. I love it.

[sir_volrath 61]

Where's the Italian fan that said Hazard wouldn't even play under Conte? 

[LAM09 6,813]

Class above the rest.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Cheeky bastard

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

He's shooting more (averaging 3 shots per game compared to 2 in past season), he's making more runs into space, into the box and between the lines (we saw signs of that 2 seasons ago), he's dribbling less (because he's playing further up the pitch so doesn't need to dribble so much).

Conte is doing the sensible thing with Hazard. Giving him as little defensive responsibility as possible within the system. Mourinho didn't have the common sense to do that. Instead, he claimed Hazard can become the best by "coming more to his direction" i.e defending the opposiing winger and fullback much more than a player of his calibre should and playing Hazard as an auxilarry left back at the sight of any strong team. This is 100% bullshit as we now know.  

 Just look at some of our past battles with Man City, PSG, Arsenal, United for reference. It's a miracle Hazard actually won POTY playing for such a cowardly, negative manager. Mourinho was the one holding him back. Messi and Ronaldo and even lesser players like Bale and Neymar rarely defend for their teams but they work within the team structure without compromising it.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge and I prefer to look forward now. Right now we have a player who in my eyes is currently the best in the world. None of the top players are playing better football than him right now. None. Anyway, long may the consistency continue. 

[Styles 9,790]

17 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

And the thing is he is not only better in attack, but also in defense. You cant be absolutely top player (even attackers)  if you are not willing to defend  (because IMO team comes first and you have to contribute to team, not just yourself) And Conte made Eden a player who presses opponents. I love it.

The thing is, Hazard's pressing is now concentrated further up the field. He very rarely has to defend deep in the LB zone.

This formation is maximising his talents and hiding his 'weakness'.

The guy is a superstar.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 minutes ago, Styles said:

The thing is, Hazard's pressing is now concentrated further up the field. He very rarely has to defend deep in the LB zone.

This formation is maximising his talents and hiding his 'weakness'.

The guy is a superstar.

The formation is pure brilliance. I dont want to praise Conte too much, but damn I havent seen such managing in long long time. From poor team, he picked three new players, rotated a bit and voila. Everyone improved, the weaknesses we had are hidden and we play as team.

But IMO the greatest thing was to bring Moses and Alonso to the team instead of Iva and Oscar. Such athleticism and dynamics.

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

I love this man. Stamford Bridge is the garden of Eden once again.

[Captain Ahmed 528]

Tir et le but!

[Barbara 15,149]

saw in MOTD that it's the first time in his career he's scored in four games in a row

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

1 minute ago, Barbara said:

saw in MOTD that it's the first time in his career he's scored in four games in a row

league* games

[Dazzy_Vance 454]

On 31/10/2016 at 4:10 PM, Dazzy_Vance said:

I may be biased but I don't give a f***... Hazard is the best player in the PL.

Bump

[Mustafa 885]

Page 1,000 ffs. Hopefully 1,000 more to come of him at his best

[Mustafa 885]

10 hours ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Messi is not like before. He's lost agility and explosivity and that's why I think right now Hazard is the best in the world. 

Agree with a lot of your views on Eden but Hazard can only dream of being on Leo's level. At the moment Leo has something like 51 goals in 53 matches in 2016. Although I agree that his agility and explosiveness has deteriorated a bit in the past few weeks, he still manages to adapt his game by not really trying to dribble past 3/4 guys like he usually does. He's happy to play the playmaker role and he plays that far better than any winger/forward in the world and he scores at will even when it seems like he's not trying.

 

Now, when it comes down to PURE enjoyment factor, you can say that Eden edges Leo at the moment because this level of performance really is not expected from Eden. We're all a bit surprised and we love him and he's carrying us. So of course.. its a bit surprising so we are ecstatic. Mind you, I believe Eden has done pretty much what Messi has done in terms of adapting his game to try and be more decisive. Eden doesn't juss dribble past 3/4 players anymore. He's doing what we've wanted from him all along.. productivity and when it comes to producing; no one comes anywhere near Lionel Messi.