Eden Hazard

[Weckerz 3,781]

I thought the Belgians out of everyone would have been the most disappointed at his performance. He is still our best player and that hasnt changed but if you cant motivate yourself to play well at the world cup for your country then people will criticise.

I'm very disappointed mate. And he most definately deserves criticism... I was aiming at our 'fans' calling him overrated after being one of our best players for 2 years.

[Rom2013 446]

I can't wait to see him back playing for us again. I don't rate Wilmots at all. The Belgian team HAS to at least play a bit better than that with all that talent.

Hazard tried but it just didn't happen. I felt bad for him but I'm not judging him on this World Cup. He's had 2 amazing seasons for us. Hopefully the third will be even better.

What do you call amazing? Hazard was at the level of Messi or Cristiano? THis season he played better than Neymar, Bale, Robben or Ribvery? Was Suarez a lot better than him? And Yaya? Was he better than Reus?

That's not an amazing season, what he did was ok but far from being a superstar like other teams have.

Amazing... amazing is Messi or Ronaldo, or Yaya that is a CM and scores 20 goals.That's amazing.

He is our best player, buut if he wants to the a real star he needs to do a lot more tahn he did, And with 21 or 22 or 23 years ol he is young, with more than that he is not.

[Joker10 946]

Wonder how long more are people gonna find excuses for Hazard's bad performances. There may be other factors why he hasn't performed to a high level but that is only valid till a certain extent. It's almost as if people are too scared to criticize our supposed golden boy and/or fear that he's going to leave if he's not loved/appreciated that they can't judge his performances objectively; praise him when he deserves one and criticize him when he deserves it.

Come on are you really suggesting he doesn't get criticized enough? There is 570+ pages on this thread, you think it is all filled with a wankfest over Hazard? There are many over the top criticism of the boy. I think it was @Barbara, who mentioned that there is seems to be a lot of revisions of history. Apparently Oscar was only good against Juve, now according to some Hazard was only good for a few games last season. It seems like you want a unanimous opinion, you won't get that there will always be people on different aisles in discussions. Go to the Azpilicueta thread if you want to see a player enormously over praised.

I don't see anything unnatural on this thread. For every action there is a reaction, people start criticizing Hazard it will lead to others defending him.

On to his World Cup performance, it would be unfair to say he had a horrible world cup. Lets have some perspective, he provided two winning assists in the group stage and his general performance beside the Argentina game have been decent. He definitely hasn't been a top performer in the world, but to say he has been "garbage," "horrible," "Terrible," etc is not true.

Belgium made the quarter-final and imo that is a very good finish for them based on their talent. People who are saying that they should have done much better are extremely overrating their players. They have absolutely no Fullbacks that can provide any threat going forward or can overlap out wide, and their midfield is average. Witsel is decent not world class like some people think he is on this forum. He has absolutely regressed since going to Russia, need to leave if he wants to get his career back on track. They left their best midfielder at home, Radja Nainggolan is better then anything they have. I have not even got to their strikers or their incapable manager.

[Jase 43,479]

Come on are you really suggesting he doesn't get criticized enough? There is 570+ pages on this thread, you think it is all filled with a wankfest over Hazard? There are many over the top criticism of the boy. I think it was @Barbara, who mentioned that there is seems to be a lot of revisions of history. Apparently Oscar was only good against Juve, now according to some Hazard was only good for a few games last season. It seems like you want a unanimous opinion, you won't get that there will always be people on different aisles in discussions. Go to the Azpilicueta thread if you want to see a player enormously over praised.

I don't see anything unnatural on this thread. For every action there is a reaction, people start criticizing Hazard it will lead to others defending him.

You're slightly missing the point. I wasn't saying Hazard doesn't get criticized enough but more so people don't want to do so for the sake of it and finding all sort of excuses (repetitive ones at that). Some are just so defensive and even paranoid of not wanting to criticize him for the reasons already mentioned previously. It's more of a case of questioning why people can't keep it balance with the evaluation. Seen some can do that with other players but not with Hazard. It's like there's one rule for him and another for other players.

[iseah100 5,612]

http://www.squawka.com/news/flop-of-the-tournament-fans-react-to-chelseas-eden-hazards-world-cup-performance/136248

Fuck these people. Like every star player lights it up at their first world cup. Hazard will be a star, for those saying he only showed up a few games, did he not show up vs PSG in France? Does everyone remember the second leg vs PSG ? We were all crushed when he got injured, we all said it was over. Thankfully it wasn't, but that's the kind of impact he has on our team. When we didn't have him in the league our team looked lost. Yes, he didn't make impacts for Belgium like he does for us, but thats cause DeBruyne is their main guy for some reason that I can't comprehend. He's still young, he will get another chance. To say he's overrated and only showed up a few games for us is disrespectful and if you really think that you can go fuck off somewhere.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

He apparently had a private talk with the coach before. I bet he wants to see him more dominant.

Hazard looked EXTREMELY tired and uninterested all tournament.

I think the Prem took a toll on him, its an extremely long season.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I mean he should have perform like De Bruyne did at least. So basically he has to step up his game. He has all the talent.

DeBruyne was well rested this season, Eden well tired... These guys aren't super human, its takes an extremely special kind of endurance to keep up a high level of performance for 9 months.

Try being more realistic about what the mind and body can truly take people.

[Tomo 21,751]

Wished we kept Mata, He was more consistent. You we need someone like a Mata to be your 'everyday best player' Hazard can then play like a star once every 10 games and we'd be good enough to win some trophies

Everyday best player? Come on lets not sugercoat, Mata was partial to the anonymous game more than is let on, especially against City.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

02

How does creating over 80 chances constitute that his best position is at AM or as the No.10? Unless you have a detailed statistic listing where he created all those chances from, that statement is pretty flawed and baseless.

Have u ever seen a winger create 80chances and top every player in the league at chance creation before? If u have then maybe I've made a mistake.

02

As for the game against Fulham, how sure are you that the game was changed because he simply had a free role in the second half or not because the players finally turned up after the rubbish first half? There were simply a lot more movement and rotations between the players to drag people about and create space for others to exploit. And mind you, Hazard's first assist practically came when he was near the right wing from a throw-in.

Hazard was surely more free. He spotted schurle runs from the right and laid passes to him. He was in more of a free role than being stuck to a position

[Chelsea? 892]

Everyday best player? Come on lets not sugercoat, Mata was partial to the anonymous game more than is let on, especially against City.

Mata wasn't there all the time but he was more consistent than Eden.

[Term-X 7,891]

Everyday best player? Come on lets not sugercoat, Mata was partial to the anonymous game more than is let on, especially against City.

You are responding to a guy with a question mark in his username, he's clueless by default.

[Chelsea? 892]

You are responding to a guy with a question mark in his username, he's clueless by default.

wow why the attack? Is it a crime tocall Eden inconsistent? Whatever the reason is, can you please place your insecurities about your life on someone else?

[Barbara 15,149]

Come on are you really suggesting he doesn't get criticized enough? There is 570+ pages on this thread, you think it is all filled with a wankfest over Hazard? There are many over the top criticism of the boy. I think it was @Barbara, who mentioned that there is seems to be a lot of revisions of history. Apparently Oscar was only good against Juve, now according to some Hazard was only good for a few games last season. It seems like you want a unanimous opinion, you won't get that there will always be people on different aisles in discussions. Go to the Azpilicueta thread if you want to see a player enormously over praised.

I don't see anything unnatural on this thread. For every action there is a reaction, people start criticizing Hazard it will lead to others defending him.

On to his World Cup performance, it would be unfair to say he had a horrible world cup. Lets have some perspective, he provided two winning assists in the group stage and his general performance beside the Argentina game have been decent. He definitely hasn't been a top performer in the world, but to say he has been "garbage," "horrible," "Terrible," etc is not true.

Belgium made the quarter-final and imo that is a very good finish for them based on their talent. People who are saying that they should have done much better are extremely overrating their players. They have absolutely no Fullbacks that can provide any threat going forward or can overlap out wide, and their midfield is average. Witsel is decent not world class like some people think he is on this forum. He has absolutely regressed since going to Russia, need to leave if he wants to get his career back on track. They left their best midfielder at home, Radja Nainggolan is better then anything they have. I have not even got to their strikers or their incapable manager.

there's a reason I decided to stay out of this thread. I knew it would be coming. People seem to be so fickle these days. Some of the same mouths worshiping him as if he was the second coming a few days or weeks ago are certainly among the ones saying how horrible he is. I don't even need to read it to know, although of course, there are many level headed people here as well.

I agree with you though. He's been okay in the WC as well as the Belgium side. Both have been extremely overhyped and overrated before the WC. I may have expected results wise a bit more from Hazard, but I didn't expect much better from Belgium results wise, so I don't get the overreaction now that the obvious became true. It's Hazard's first WC, he's a player known for his laid back attitude. I didn't expect him to become someone else with blood in his eyes like an enraged bull in the ring. That's not who he is. I'll dare to say again he's the kind of passive player - knowing some will have my head for that. But he's the quiet type, not the extra-motivated, I'll make this my backyard and show the world how awesome I am. I'm not slightly disappointed with him - a bit with Belgium as I expected at least better matches in the group stage, but Hazard was okay and expected (performance wise).

He knows his talents. He tried and couldn't do it. Hazard has played similar to this in his chelsea career too. He is passive 90% of the time until he gets a chance and goes past a defender. We need to stop overrating Hazard's talents. He's not a Messi/Robben/Neymar type player; Hazard is similar to Iniesta and Gotze

just to clarify my instance. That's not the kind of passive I'm talking about. If anything his game is very aggressive and active. It's his personality I'm talking about. He's a quiet guy, who doesn't show that extra motivation to prove anything to anyone. As I said in my last post here, I think if there's one manager capable of helping Eden become what he can be is Mourinho. He's a great motivator and he'll help Hazard to be ambitious (that's not even the word, but I can't think of the right one now, the opposite of the laid back attitude)

[Fernando 6,585]

Despite many people not liking Wilmots, he has a point.

It's the same point Mourinho has been putting as out of late. That Hazard can be a bit lazy and not do his job as he is told.

Guy needs to mature a bit more. He said a few months back that he wanted to be in the bracket of Messi and Ronaldo, but he must fist learn to work for his team first.

As Mourinho and Wilmots allude to, the guy has talent to reach the heights but until then he will just be a inconsistent player.

[Jase 43,479]

kellzfresh, on 07 Jul 2014 - 01:38 AM, said:

Have u ever seen a winger create 80chances and top every player in the league at chance creation before? If u have then maybe I've made a mistake.

You know, turning that question around doesn't make your statement anymore valid than it is. There are so many factors that can lead to those 80+ chances created; Hazard rotating positions during games throughout the season, meaning the chances created could come from different positions than just 1 behind the ST and unlike most of the top winger/wide players, he would rather pass or create for others than shoot at goal himself resulting in his numbers being high. Moreover, the term 'chances created' here is so vague that a simple pass to a teammate and that fella shooting from 35 yards is considered 'chance created'. So, it's still not conclusive to say Hazard should be playing as the No.10 just because he created over 80 chances.

Funny thing is, we have seen Hazard shone out wide before for us on more than occasion and even for Lille (different league and all but still played out wide quite a lot nonetheless) and yet, I don't seem to recall people asking to be played in the middle during that time. People only seem to really suggest him to be used as the No.10 when he's not performing. I told Barbara recently that if you are gonna play Hazard as the No.10 under Mourinho, then it's like almost clutching at straws really. Considering how Oscar and Willian have been used in that role to connect the midfield and attack, dropping back into deeper positions (almost becoming like a 3rd CM) and doing more defending than attacking, using Hazard there is a complete waste of space. He's not going to be as effective as the other two in carrying out those roles and in fact, you're gonna restrict his abilities even more than him playing out wide now.

[Term-X 7,891]

wow why the attack? Is it a crime tocall Eden inconsistent? Whatever the reason is, can you please place your insecurities about your life on someone else?

Shit response is shit.

Bushman II

[Gilvorak 3,734]

This inconsistency nonsense has to stop. In terms of technical ability there are only 2/3 players better than Eden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWffAUpBBY

Ambidexterity. Pace. Ball retention. Dribbling. Skill. Long shots. Finishing. Vision etc he has pretty much everything you need and in abundance.

Why he's prone to "disappear" from games isn't because he's inconsistent or "hides" in the big games. His one and only weakness is his off-the-ball work as I've mentioned several times in the past, his movement simply isn't comparable to the likes of Neymar, Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez. Reus etc He doesn't run in behind players, he doesn't try to find gaps in "between the lines" enough where he can make the most of his ability.

He's simply too much of a ball to feet player at the moment. I mean I wish he would improve his set piece taking ability (direct FK's, corners, indirect FK's) and add a bit more aggression to his game but it's obvious to me his movement is his biggest weakness.

Anyway, it's clear as day Belgium need to build the team around him and move him centrally. Maybe even hand the captaincy to him to invoke a bit of leadership in him.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

You know, turning that question around doesn't make your statement anymore valid than it is. There are so many factors that can lead to those 80+ chances created; Hazard rotating positions during games throughout the season, meaning the chances created could come from different positions than just 1 behind the ST and unlike most of the top winger/wide players, he would rather pass or create for others than shoot at goal himself resulting in his numbers being high. Moreover, the term 'chances created' here is so vague that a simple pass to a teammate and that fella shooting from 35 yards is considered 'chance created'. So, it's still not conclusive to say Hazard should be playing as the No.10 just because he created over 80 chances.

Funny thing is, we have seen Hazard shone out wide before for us on more than occasion and even for Lille (different league and all but still played out wide quite a lot nonetheless) and yet, I don't seem to recall people asking to be played in the middle during that time. People only seem to really suggest him to be used as the No.10 when he's not performing. I told Barbara recently that if you are gonna play Hazard as the No.10 under Mourinho, then it's like almost clutching at straws really. Considering how Oscar and Willian have been used in that role to connect the midfield and attack, dropping back into deeper positions (almost becoming like a 3rd CM) and doing more defending than attacking, using Hazard there is a complete waste of space. He's not going to be as effective as the other two in carrying out those roles and in fact, you're gonna restrict his abilities even more than him playing out wide now.

You miss my point totally. If hazard plays AM, he'll have more of the ball and not disappear again.

Hazard doesn't have the mentality of most attacking wingers. He just doesn't. Mourinho did a good job motivating him as the best motivator in football, but hazard is not someone who runs at the defence at pace, puts in a cross/shoots at every opportunity.

Look at mertens on the right for Belgium in this WC then compare with hazard on the left. Mertens is not world class, he just asked for the ball, tried to dribble his leftback and put in a cross/shoot.

Hazard takes the ball, instead of charging at the 1 marker, he turns round, by this time more markers come to assist then he has to pass back to the left-back.

Mertens is direct, hazard is not. Mertens/schurle =winger

Hazard = different

Its not as if hazard can't do that, its just that he prefers a quick one-two and rather lays the pass for another to score. That's why it seems he goes missing for long periods, then just decides to finally try and make things happen its just unnatural to him IMO.

But let's agree to disagree

[Weckerz 3,781]

His one and only weakness is his off-the-ball work as I've mentioned several times in the past, his movement simply isn't comparable to the likes of Neymar, Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez. Reus etc He doesn't run in behind players, he doesn't try to find gaps in "between the lines" enough where he can make the most of his ability.

He's simply too much of a ball to feet player at the moment. I mean I wish he would improve his set piece taking ability (direct FK's, corners, indirect FK's) and add a bit more aggression to his game but it's obvious to me his movement is his biggest weakness.

Anyway, it's clear as day Belgium need to build the team around him and move him centrally. Maybe even hand the captaincy to him to invoke a bit of leadership in him.

QFT

[Polo7 3,496]

We have moved from the likes of Kalou, Malouda and SWP to Hazard and people will still find things to complain about. We are a spoilt bunch.