Eden Hazard

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Wow. I feel like crying. I've never been happy when people were satisfied with hazard being unselfish, I've been begging for so long for Hazard to stop being shy, stop showing mercy to defenders, get the ball, dribble past your marker and shoooot!!!! Seeing him take the responsibility and not pass it on to another is what was missing and seeing him do what I've always wanted is pure joy.

[Beigl 1,387]

I said in the summer that Eden needs a coach who tells him to be more decisive in the final third, because we all know he has all the tools to score goals from everywhere. It seems like Conte is the right manager for him. Hazard isn't as shy when it comes to shooting as under Mourinho, not to mention that he can concentrate on playing as an attacker like he should do. This is what I really like about the 3-4-3 system- our wingers get protected by two workhorses who are also capable of scoring goals and creating chances, so there is much more fluidity in our game in comparison to the last few years.

Hazard and Costa are starting to link-up much better than in the last two years, which is really helpful against defensive teams. I have always thought they don't really like to pass to eachother but this also seems to have changed.

 

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I found this post on Facebook about what happened to hazard last season. 

 

"To me it's perfectly simple, and I never bought into the criticism of Hazard.
Jose ran him into the ground when the guy needed a rest, when he wasn't tip-top physically Jose played him and played him and played him and demanded the same as he does with all his wide players, that they run backwards almost as much as forwards, or even more.
The more he played the more his body suffered the more he put in poor performances the more he lost confidence the more Jose didn't have a clue how to manage him and just kept on running him into the ground, demanding even more effort.
A player knows his body better than anyone, and a player like Hazard, who runs at players and takes them on, needs to feel comfortable physically more than anyone, he needs to have that confidence to skip past players.
There was the game at Leicester, Jose's final game, where Jose wanted Hazard to carry on, he looked disgusted on the touchline, as if the fault lay with Hazard, as if Hazard had betrayed him, this was a player that had played and played and played. Jose wouldn't take him off so Hazard forced the issue, and quite rightly in my opinion. He was carrying god knows how many knocks and he couldn't carry on, and he had tried, he had tried throughout the whole season.
Guus, a calmer and more experienced head, gave Hazard six weeks off. Look what happened, he came back a different player, scored a brilliant goal at Anfield and came on for the second-half against Tottenham with us trailing 2-0. The rest as they say is history.
People said he should have done it earlier in the season and saved Jose. I had every sympathy for Hazard and none for Jose. A player needs understanding, and I'm afraid Jose showed none whatsoever."

And looking at how Mourinho is already looking for fighters in manutd to play through injury, alienating luke shaw, this is looking more true by the day. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

2 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

I found this post on Facebook about what happened to hazard last season. 

 

"To me it's perfectly simple, and I never bought into the criticism of Hazard.
Jose ran him into the ground when the guy needed a rest, when he wasn't tip-top physically Jose played him and played him and played him and demanded the same as he does with all his wide players, that they run backwards almost as much as forwards, or even more.
The more he played the more his body suffered the more he put in poor performances the more he lost confidence the more Jose didn't have a clue how to manage him and just kept on running him into the ground, demanding even more effort.
A player knows his body better than anyone, and a player like Hazard, who runs at players and takes them on, needs to feel comfortable physically more than anyone, he needs to have that confidence to skip past players.
There was the game at Leicester, Jose's final game, where Jose wanted Hazard to carry on, he looked disgusted on the touchline, as if the fault lay with Hazard, as if Hazard had betrayed him, this was a player that had played and played and played. Jose wouldn't take him off so Hazard forced the issue, and quite rightly in my opinion. He was carrying god knows how many knocks and he couldn't carry on, and he had tried, he had tried throughout the whole season.
Guus, a calmer and more experienced head, gave Hazard six weeks off. Look what happened, he came back a different player, scored a brilliant goal at Anfield and came on for the second-half against Tottenham with us trailing 2-0. The rest as they say is history.
People said he should have done it earlier in the season and saved Jose. I had every sympathy for Hazard and none for Jose. A player needs understanding, and I'm afraid Jose showed none whatsoever."

And looking at how Mourinho is already looking for fighters in manutd to play through injury, alienating luke shaw, this is looking more true by the day. 

Mourinho is known for over-tasking his wingers. Jose ran Hazard ragged 2 seasons ago after the 5-3 Spurs game. The situation was excarcebated when he decided to shut up shop for the entire 2nd half of that season, become ridiculously negative and shift all the attacking burden on Hazard. Add that to the fact during this time period Azplicueta was playing as a Left back, mostly for defensive purposes and Hazard was double-marked every game, gettting tactically fouled and basically abused by thuggish premier league defenders who invariably went unpunished.

It's not a surprise his body broke down and he became injury prone for the first time in his career. Eden might be strong as an ox when he has the ball at his feet, which is decieving since from the waist down, he's built like a tank, with some of the most freakish thigh muscles I've ever seen on a footballer. In reality he's not built for the punishment he was handed out in that 2013-2015 time span. Looking at his upper body, he's built like a regular guy, not a professional athlete. 

A similar thing also happened to Matic, having to cover for the defensively inept Fabregas all the time. The thing is Mourinho was never a player himself and struggles to relate to players who actually play the game. For him, players are nothing more than chess pieces, manuevered to suit his goals and ambitions.

Conte on the other hand was a top player for Juventus and one of the most decorated Italian footballers ever. He puts Hazard in a position to maximize his talents, instead of forcing him to bend to his every whim like Mourinho did. And when the match is decided, Conte subs him out. Mourinho never subbed out Hazard, regardless of what the scoreline was.

[MCM4PR3Z 411]

Hazard was praising Alonso in the Belgian media. He says it's because of his hard defensive work that he can focus more on attacking now. He calls Alonso one of the main reasons of his good performances.

[DYC. 7,542]

We'll never really know what happened to Hazard last season so all we can do is speculate. But all of last season, bar the very end, I kept saying Hazard isn't fit. And by that I mean he wasn't in top shape. He was slower, less energetic and a lot less sharp. Top physical condition is everything to a footballer.  I remember the things I read when the man went off because he was injured. Slated because he was injured (!).

Anyway, poor match fitness sounds a lot more plausible than some devious scheme to get Mourinho sacked. That was a little too 'cartoon villain-y' for me.

[MCM4PR3Z 411]

29 minutes ago, DYC. said:

We'll never really know what happened to Hazard last season so all we can do is speculate. But all of last season, bar the very end, I kept saying Hazard isn't fit. And by that I mean he wasn't in top shape. He was slower, less energetic and a lot less sharp. Top physical condition is everything to a footballer.  I remember the things I read when the man went off because he was injured. Slated because he was injured (!).

Anyway, poor match fitness sounds a lot more plausible than some devious scheme to get Mourinho sacked. That was a little too 'cartoon villain-y' for me.

He repeated today in the media that he wasn't fully fit physically and mentally due to little time of before the season and no winter break mid season.

[Tomo 21,733]

41 minutes ago, DYC. said:

We'll never really know what happened to Hazard last season so all we can do is speculate. But all of last season, bar the very end, I kept saying Hazard isn't fit. And by that I mean he wasn't in top shape. He was slower, less energetic and a lot less sharp. Top physical condition is everything to a footballer.  I remember the things I read when the man went off because he was injured. Slated because he was injured (!).

Anyway, poor match fitness sounds a lot more plausible than some devious scheme to get Mourinho sacked. That was a little too 'cartoon villain-y' for me.

That was always a straw clutching narrative by fans who Couldn't let go of Jose. Thinking logically it was insane even as a thought, the Real players you could almost imagine it but the idea that our 15/16 lot who were widely critisied for lack of character and leadership would at the same time rebel vs Jose was just ludicrous. As much as i liked Jose there was a line, one that he not only crossed but shat on and sacking him for Antonio is probably the best decision we have made since we appointed Jose the first time.

[DYC. 7,542]

40 minutes ago, MCM4PR3Z said:

He repeated today in the media that he wasn't fully fit physically and mentally due to little time of before the season and no winter break mid season.

He shouldn't forget to mention he got fat in the summer but there you have it. There's sense in that story.

22 minutes ago, Tomo said:

That was always a straw clutching narrative by fans who Couldn't let go of Jose. Thinking logically it was insane even as a thought, the Real players you could almost imagine it but the idea that our 15/16 lot who were widely critisied for lack of character and leadership would at the same time rebel vs Jose was just ludicrous. As much as i liked Jose there was a line, one that he not only crossed but shat on and sacking him for Antonio is probably the best decision we have made since we appointed Jose the first time.

I'll hold off on praising Conte into the heavens myself. Ask me about that after three seasons (if he's still here). But I'm with you on the rest.

[Jase 43,479]

5 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

I found this post on Facebook about what happened to hazard last season. 

 

"To me it's perfectly simple, and I never bought into the criticism of Hazard.
Jose ran him into the ground when the guy needed a rest, when he wasn't tip-top physically Jose played him and played him and played him and demanded the same as he does with all his wide players, that they run backwards almost as much as forwards, or even more.
The more he played the more his body suffered the more he put in poor performances the more he lost confidence the more Jose didn't have a clue how to manage him and just kept on running him into the ground, demanding even more effort.
A player knows his body better than anyone, and a player like Hazard, who runs at players and takes them on, needs to feel comfortable physically more than anyone, he needs to have that confidence to skip past players.
There was the game at Leicester, Jose's final game, where Jose wanted Hazard to carry on, he looked disgusted on the touchline, as if the fault lay with Hazard, as if Hazard had betrayed him, this was a player that had played and played and played. Jose wouldn't take him off so Hazard forced the issue, and quite rightly in my opinion. He was carrying god knows how many knocks and he couldn't carry on, and he had tried, he had tried throughout the whole season.
Guus, a calmer and more experienced head, gave Hazard six weeks off. Look what happened, he came back a different player, scored a brilliant goal at Anfield and came on for the second-half against Tottenham with us trailing 2-0. The rest as they say is history.
People said he should have done it earlier in the season and saved Jose. I had every sympathy for Hazard and none for Jose. A player needs understanding, and I'm afraid Jose showed none whatsoever."

And looking at how Mourinho is already looking for fighters in manutd to play through injury, alienating luke shaw, this is looking more true by the day. 

Nail. On. Head.

It's a joke that so many - fans, journalists, pundits - got brainwashed by Mourinho and bought into his 'my players betrayed me' nonsense.

[manpe 10,861]

To me it seems like Jose cannot let go of the past. He wants every player to be like the ones who brought him success in the past - Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Zanetti, Sneijder, Zlatan etc. All strong characters for sure, he was very lucky to be managing such fine players, there aren't many more like that anymore. He saw that in Ivanovic and thus also ran him to the ground, ignoring his decline. It's just mental to play a 30 something man every single fucking game, but now he's saying Carrick cannot play more because he's old. Bullshit. He is doing the same with Zlatan now, undroppable not because of his footballing skills, but because Mourinho associates him with past success, just like he did with Eto'o when he bought him.  About Hazard, what he doesn't realize is that he is not Lampard, he cannot play 160+ matches in a row. Frank was a freak of nature, Hazard is a flair player in need of careful handling. He has completely failed to adapt to different types of players than those who brought him success, that's why he keeps criticizing them. He does not realize that more often than not it will backfire. He either moves on with the times, or slowly fades away like he is doing now. Look at Conte, look at Klopp, even look at Pochettino... they are football people concentrating on football and player development, not some romantic notion of having soldiers bleeding for the cause. They will fight for you eventually when they realize that following you will bring them success, but all Jose is doing is pushing his players further from him and not doing a single thing to actually improve and motivate his players.

[Fernando 6,491]

What I see is that while Mourinho and Pep sees as the main answer is to buy and buy, Klopp and Conte are to work work work.

You see the difference the former and latter have had an effect on what they have. 

Granted they all need to buy but not to the excessiveness Mourinho and Pep always required. 

[the wes 7,212]

[the wes 7,212]

[Johnnyeye 7,453]

 

 

Dang, this boy is back, he´s enjoying every minute on the pitch, he´s got my vote for premier league player of the month and Conte for manager of the month

[DYC. 7,542]

18 minutes ago, the wes said:

So much football since the age of 17.

Quote

 

He has won possession in the attacking third more times (12) than any other Premier League player this season, with this not only limiting opponents’ chances of scoring against Chelsea, but increasing the possibility of Hazard and co. netting against a disorganised defence.

 

Free from defensive duties? I don't think so.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

1 hour ago, DYC. said:

So much football since the age of 17.

Free from defensive duties? I don't think so.

I'm glad you quoted that. Nothing more frustrating that people claiming Hazard's a poor defender. He's very good at winning the ball & is damn near unbeatable in duels because of his body strength. Just don't expect him to track fullbacks and rightly so.

 

 

[Tomo 21,733]

8 hours ago, DYC. said:

He shouldn't forget to mention he got fat in the summer but there you have it. There's sense in that story.

I'll hold off on praising Conte into the heavens myself. Ask me about that after three seasons (if he's still here). But I'm with you on the rest.

After how wrong i got it with AVB I'm trying to remain cautious  but he is making it almost impossible.