Eden Hazard

[oldportblue 547]

Just now, Tomo said:

He's literally been swimming against a tide for most of his time here.

Him being as good as he has been for us is the equivalent of a defender being a defensive rock for a Brendan Rodgers or Kevin Keegan side, something the "he doesn't do enough" brigade don't seem to realize!!!!!!!

exactly, that's a great analogy

[Unionjack 7,531]

I think my problem is my memory.

I remember the games when he has carried the team seemingly on his own. Like someone that leads by example. Like I want all of the lads to play like. Watching him in those games as a Blue you get that rush of excitement and makes you think its all gonna be OK

So when I see the Eden whos got his hands on his hips, chin dragging and not seeming to care I remember the games where he was amazing and wonder if hes got a multiple personality disorder. (tongue in cheek)

Just remember that Sunderland game 13/14 season. The geezer was fuckin amazing! All I want is for HIM to remenver them too at times.

 

 

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Hazard will need to change his game massively and finally start contributing to defensive phase of the game much more under managers like Guardiola or Sarri, because they wouldn't accept his half-assed approach. Attacking players under those coaches should press all the time and try to take ball away from the opponent all the time, which Hazard doesn't do.

Guardiola uses Sane and Sarri uses Insigne in same positions where Hazard hypothetically would play for them.

So, Sane this season: 34 tackles and 16 interception; Insigne: 29 tackles and 25 interceptions; Hazard: 8 tackles and 4 interceptions. Or look at Bernardo Silva, who played 1000 minutes less than Hazard: 37 tackles and 15 interceptions.

Or you can look at Mane at Liverpool: 44 tackles and 16 interceptions. Or Son at Tottenham: 24 tackles and 10 interceptions. Or Rony Lopes at Monaco under Jardim: 58 (!) tackles and 19 interceptions. Or Marco Asensio at Real: 30 tackles and 12 interceptions.

People think that life is paradise for an attacking players under those coaches, but that's far from the truth. Being great attacking player is not enough anymore.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 hours ago, pHaRaOn said:

Hazard will need to change his game massively and finally start contributing to defensive phase of the game much more under managers like Guardiola or Sarri, because they wouldn't accept his half-assed approach. Attacking players under those coaches should press all the time and try to take ball away from the opponent all the time, which Hazard doesn't do.

Guardiola uses Sane and Sarri uses Insigne in same positions where Hazard hypothetically would play for them.

So, Sane this season: 34 tackles and 16 interception; Insigne: 29 tackles and 25 interceptions; Hazard: 8 tackles and 4 interceptions. Or look at Bernardo Silva, who played 1000 minutes less than Hazard: 37 tackles and 15 interceptions.

Or you can look at Mane at Liverpool: 44 tackles and 16 interceptions. Or Son at Tottenham: 24 tackles and 10 interceptions. Or Rony Lopes at Monaco under Jardim: 58 (!) tackles and 19 interceptions. Or Marco Asensio at Real: 30 tackles and 12 interceptions.

People think that life is paradise for an attacking players under those coaches, but that's far from the truth. Being great attacking player is not enough anymore.

Yeah but partly thats because they defend as a team and attack as a team. 

Here, you see Kante doing 4 man job because Eden, Morata, Cesc and Willian often stop giving a shit. 

In a perfect world, Eden would do the tracking back but he would also get support in attack by the players like Modric/Silva, Marcelo/Ghoulam,...

We lack such quality players, but even if we had them, we still have to change our style. 

Im not sure what Conte is thinking, but his juve was team with everyone tracking back and working as a team. Here he either changed the approach and made us very defensive and reactive instead of proactive: or the players simply dont give a shit about his instructions.

Anyway you are right about Eden and he should do more tracking back, but its fair to point out that despite he isnt realy efficient, Eden is often the only player on this team that actualy wants to attack and play football. I remember many games this season, he was trying to make something, but everyone else just stood back and didnt get involved in attack. 

That said, anyone who thinks selling Eden is good idea is, pardon my words fucking idiot. People thought the same about replacing Costa, but Eden is even more important. We just splashed 150m on Morata, Drinks and Bakayoko. Let that sink it. Even if we get alot of money for Eden, the club wont bring quality replacements. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by BlueLyon

[Unionjack 7,531]

3 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

his juve was team with everyone tracking back and working as a team. Here he either changed the approach and made us very defensive and reactive instead of proactive: or the players simply dont give a shit about his instructions.

OR they dont have those qualiries in them to be able to do it so hes had to work with what hes got?

We dont get the chance to see how they train. Who knows they might get it drilled into them then come game time they do it all their normal way.  Thats why you always hear and see him shouting to Eden instructions??

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

OR they dont have those qualiries in them to be able to do it so hes had to work with what hes got?

We dont get the chance to see how they train. Who knows they might get it drilled into them then come game time they do it all their normal way.  Thats why you always hear and see him shouting to Eden instructions??

I dont know what happend but what I know is Conte turned into one of those pragmatic, small balls managers who play it safe. 

Emerson was playing great, Alonso comes back from ban and Emerson doesnt get a sniff anymore. OR, playing 5:3:2 which shown some of the worst offensive displays I have seen in long time. We already suck, but he decides to pull out Willian/Pedro for another defensive midfielder...when we play 3:4:3, the attack is never fluid and disorganized, lacks creativity. 

Cmon, I only accept such tactics if there are results, but we failed in so many games and yet, he still insists on them. 

There might also be player power, either way we are piss poor under Conte since 2018. 

Either way, we could play better football and still get these results. 

I supported Chelsea for ages and I understood why we play that way, but when there is no results, no one will accept watching defensive football.

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

I dont know what happend but what I know is Conte turned into one of those pragmatic, small balls managers who play it safe. 

Emerson was playing great, Alonso comes back from ban and Emerson doesnt get a sniff anymore. OR, playing 5:3:2 which shown some of the worst offensive displays I have seen in long time. We already suck, but he decides to pull out Willian/Pedro for another defensive midfielder...when we play 3:4:3, the attack is never fluid and disorganized, lacks creativity. 

Cmon, I only accept such tactics if there are results, but we failed in so many games and yet, he still insists on them. 

There might also be player power, either way we are piss poor under Conte since 2018. 

Either way, we could play better football and still get these results. 

I supported Chelsea for ages and I understood why we play that way, but when there is no results, no one will accept watching defensive football.

We played it under Mou tho too.

Weird cause Emerson was crap too. Even Dave. It was the worse team ffort Ive seen for ages. You would think one of the players or their big gob family members would ley something slip about whats going on but Ive seen no rumours or gossip about it.

[The Skipper 20,593]

11 hours ago, Mana said:

He is slowly damaging the club. Just because he's still here right now doesn't mean he isn't. If he does not want to stay, let the club (and the next manager) start planning on a rebuild not around Hazard. The earlier, the better.

Sign the bloody thing otherwise go. I don't want an Alexis thing happening in Chelsea.

When next season starts, the media will be talking about the future of Hazard and Madrid. In fact, they are already talking about it now. 

Or you know, we could just keep Eden and also improve the team together? Eden isn’t holding the club to hostage at all... this is a strange narrative to have imo. I mean, the club could just sell him you know? You should criticise the club for not selling him, not Eden... The board have that power don’t they? You don’t want an Alexis situation to happen but how did that happen? Arsenal weren’t challenging for serious trophies. You should look beyond Hazard, there are far bigger problems. Hazard’s woes are a symptom, not the cause. 

[BlueLyon 9,359]

3 hours ago, Mana said:

I personally think anyone who wants Eden to stay without him signing the contract is even more of a fucking idiot.

Shows they are putting a player higher than the club. They also cannot see the potential damage Hazard can do in our rebuild. We rebuild with the new coach/manager around Hazard only for him to leave 2 years later. Then we have to rebuild again. With less money.

I don't care how valuable Hazard is to us. The fact that he's playing around with us is pathetic. Yes, I know he has clowns surrounding him and wants better players. So send a clear message to the board. And if they don't grant your demands, leave ASAP! Or sign da ting, and show you are willing to stay loyal to us even though we are going through a terrible time!

I know this will be upsetting for all of us Chelsea (especially the Hazard-fanatic) fans. But Hazard leaving now is much freaking better than Hazard leaving at the end of his contract. No fucking question about it.

Hmm, Im not so sure about that.

Courtois should be sold this summer if he doesnt extend, no doubt.

But Hazard? His role at club is simply too big right now. We need to bring players that can replace him and within two years, they get the mantle and Eden leaves if that is the case. The transition is easy.

If you do this now, when we already are average team bar Eden, Kante, Azpi, you think we can compete with big teams? Because we cant stay without CL two times in row.

We already have the cash to buy 3 quality players, there is no doubt about it. The board ability and our attraction are other things. If we sell Eden, surely attraction goes evn lower.

Keeping Eden for next two years, while periodicaly buying around 2-3 players each summer window, will give us enough power for next season and new players fitting in the team. After two years, they take some of workload and losing Eden wont be that hard, even on free. 

I just dont trust board can replace Eden, because money was never the problem and we are buying average players for years now with one or two exceptions.

People just dont see past the money, do they. Sell the guy because he will give us 150m...two years of great performances by Eden are worth more than those 150m.

I agree with you though, we need to rebuild the team, be it with Eden or without. Going two more seasons with Eden and not improving and then losing him for free with no players to take mantle from him will be a disaster. But as long we get proper players over next two years, I dont care if Eden leaves on free. His role at the club was huge, there would be no hard feelings.

[Unionjack 7,531]

3 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

I dont care if Eden leaves on free. His role at the club was huge, there would be no hard feelings.

Sod that for a lark mate!

?You honestly think Roman would pass up whatever money we could get for him rather than let him do one for bugger all? Not a blinkin chance.

If hes mucking us about with 2 seasons left then hes gotta go anyway no matter ho did it. We have said the same things about players who have done it at other clubs. Why is he different?

YES I agree he could be a deciding factor for other players maybe joining usbut it would set a precedent. If Chelsea and £300k a week cant keep him then sod him.

But if we could us him in some like for like swap I dont think we would miss him

[BlueLyon 9,359]

7 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Sod that for a lark mate!

?You honestly think Roman would pass up whatever money we could get for him rather than let him do one for bugger all? Not a blinkin chance.

If hes mucking us about with 2 seasons left then hes gotta go anyway no matter ho did it. We have said the same things about players who have done it at other clubs. Why is he different?

YES I agree he could be a deciding factor for other players maybe joining usbut it would set a precedent. If Chelsea and £300k a week cant keep him then sod him.

But if we could us him in some like for like swap I dont think we would miss him

And who says players like Griezmann, Dybala, Asensio, Isco,...would even want to join us, never mind stay here to build a new era? Chelsea shown little ambition under Eden, doubt it will change now. And if it will, Eden will be told about it before he gets sold and it might persue him to extend.

When we talk like for like replacements for Eden, we dont have pull power, project, or quality to get them. Even if we get the likes of Asensio they would fuck of to Real as soon as they would get a call. 

Sure, we might sell Eden and buy Fekir and Bailey, but the club has no clue how to get that done. We would probably buy Martial instead who is a lazy and tacticaly inept, we would be even worse than this season.

49 minutes ago, Mana said:

Did I say he is the main cause? No, I didn't say he is the main reason why we are in this mess. But he's not helping the situation at all.

I'm not saying he's keeping the club hostage as the club can sell him this summer, but at the moment he is not signing the contract. When next season starts, we would have to worry about Hazard's future even more with the club, and the valuable for him majorly decreases. 

In the last 2 out of 3 seasons, we haven't been challenging for the league and will not be playing CL football. One trophy won (so far) by Chelsea in the last 3 seasons. That's almost as bad. So yes, the Alexis thing can happen especially next season if we aren't challenging again.

He's not signing the contract because he wants to see if Chelsea is a sinking ship and bail out quickly. This summer is probably the last summer that clubs will pay big money for Hazard. After that, and him not signing, we get less money from him and less money to rebuild.

Hazard isn't God. We won games without Hazard. Granted, I agree will be weaker without him.

But what if Hazard wants to leave to Madrid now? Then this dream transition goes tits up. He's definitely looking at Madrid and if Madrid wants him this summer, they may get him. This is what happens when a player doesn't sign the contract. Clubs like Madrid will be wondering "why hasn't he signed it? maybe he's looking for a new challenge!" and attracting them.

Two years of great performances from Hazard will be worth than £150m, I agree...

But it's absolutely no guarantee we would get that at all. He has been poor this season. The Newcastle game summed it up. 

The thing is, I don't know if Hazard truly loves this club to bits. In the last 3 years, I've seen more worse Hazard performances than great ones. He needs to take way more games by the scruff of the neck.

Listen, I don't want Hazard to leave...if he signs da ting I'll gladly back off. But I personally think the guy that plays a "massive role" for our club...is waiting for Madrid to call him. 

I like Eden, but dont get me wrong, I like club more. Back when we sold Robben, I didnt like it, but I knew we will find replacements. Today, I think we have to keep Eden at all costs because we cant get good players. Honestly I think Eden will extend eventualy. 

The problem is on board because we need good players regardless and we did awful job past three windows, bar Kante.

[The Skipper 20,593]

3 hours ago, Mana said:

Did I say he is the main cause? No, I didn't say he is the main reason why we are in this mess. But he's not helping the situation at all.

I'm not saying he's keeping the club hostage as the club can sell him this summer, but at the moment he is not signing the contract. When next season starts, we would have to worry about Hazard's future even more with the club, and the valuable for him majorly decreases. 

In the last 2 out of 3 seasons, we haven't been challenging for the league and will not be playing CL football. One trophy won (so far) by Chelsea in the last 3 seasons. That's almost as bad. So yes, the Alexis thing can happen especially next season if we aren't challenging again.

He's not signing the contract because he wants to see if Chelsea is a sinking ship and bail out quickly. This summer is probably the last summer that clubs will pay big money for Hazard. After that, and him not signing, we get less money from him and less money to rebuild.

My overall point is that h don’t know why you’re chastising Eden for this issue when ultimately this decision and power falls to the board, not Hazard. 

[OneMoSalah 8,785]

28 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

My overall point is that h don’t know why you’re chastising Eden for this issue when ultimately this decision and power falls to the board, not Hazard. 

I'm sorry but it is getting pretty indefensible when you see his quotes regarding him not wanting the fans to want him to go etc although he said he wouldn't discuss his future to after the World Cup (if he does want to leave and has a good world cup, you would normally assume with any other player any other contract the club would get a pretty good fee but hes got 1 year left on his deal so if we don't deal in this summer he can just say look, I'm going for fuck all) along with all the other tedious bullshit about if Courtois signs I'll sign etc and whatever stupid little soundbites hes used in the media in the last season or so. You either want to play here or you don't. There is no middle ground. Don't see why this isn't the case when speaking about Hazard but when its Courtois it is hugely talked about. The board know we've underachieved this season there is no doubt about it but if he said I want to stay to the club or to the media or whatever obviously it would ease huge anxiety around the fan base and the club would probably go and offer him a deal pronto but even then he was offered one months ago, which he rejected, which his father confirmed mentioning Real Madrid interest as a possible reason as to why.

[The Skipper 20,593]

2 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

I'm sorry but it is getting pretty indefensible when you see his quotes regarding him not wanting the fans to want him to go etc although he said he wouldn't discuss his future to after the World Cup (if he does want to leave and has a good world cup, you would normally assume with any other player any other contract the club would get a pretty good fee but hes got 1 year left on his deal so if we don't deal in this summer he can just say look, I'm going for fuck all) along with all the other tedious bullshit about if Courtois signs I'll sign etc and whatever stupid little soundbites hes used in the media in the last season or so. You either want to play here or you don't. There is no middle ground. Don't see why this isn't the case when speaking about Hazard but when its Courtois it is hugely talked about. The board know we've underachieved this season there is no doubt about it but if he said I want to stay to the club or to the media or whatever obviously it would ease huge anxiety around the fan base and the club would probably go and offer him a deal pronto but even then he was offered one months ago, which he rejected, which his father confirmed mentioning Real Madrid interest as a possible reason as to why.

He’s got two years left, so we haven’t entered that territory yet. I’ll judge if/when we get there. 

[OneMoSalah 8,785]

5 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

He’s got two years left, so we haven’t entered that territory yet. I’ll judge if/when we get there. 

I was under the impression it was one year. Still its a similar situation. He has all the bargaining power. If he was so keen to stay he'd have resigned in December that is the harsh reality. 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Polo7 3,496]

11 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Would be great if you could put in a decent performance this weekend in the meantime.

[Pizy 18,418]

Fair play to him with these latest comments. The exact mentality I'd have in his position. He's probably sick to death of going from mountain top to valley every other season. We win the league, have a disastrous summer and finish miles off of a title challenge. He won't want to waste the rest of his prime years here if we continue to sign the Drinkwater's, Bakayoko's, Barkley's, and Zappacosta's of the world. Especially when he's watching rivals sign world class talents.

Hopefully these comments light a fire under our clubs ass and they bring in some top class. Otherwise I fear he'll either force his way out or do the unthinkable and run his contract down and leave for nothing.