Eden Hazard

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Just now, Styles said:

I think Hazard has built up enough credit in his time here to at least be given the benefit of the doubt. One bad season doesn't make a player.

 

But how long can we just keep saying "he'll come good?" Don't get me wrong, I admire your optimism and hope you're correct, but in my heart of hearts all I see is a kid who doesn't appear to be happy playing his football with Chelsea. 

[quickpassnmove 924]

 One terrible calendar year under Mourinho with an incomplete squad, a lack of rotation/change, a lack of goalscoring, more slow, inept attacks, etc.... This is NOT a good time to make judgments on this player IMO. One thing we've always known: he's not a great finisher even at his best. 

In my opinion, Hazard needs to play in a side wherein he is not expected to create so much from dribbling but is still given some liberty to do so. If Chelsea aren't the side to move the ball faster, then he should go elsewhere to realize greater potential. 

On the other hand, de Bruyne is a more impressive player for me, so... yeah, there's that big mistake (thanks Jose). I feel certain that I would rather spend big wages on Kevin than Eden, but some of this opinion is formed from my view that football should not revolve around single players who are expected to emulate superstars like Messi/Ronaldo. When football becomes a dribbling exhibition with an elevated superstar dribbler in every side, I am far less interested in the sport altogether. Same boring crap in baseball (pitcher) and in American throwball (quarterback).

[Magic Lamps 11,469]

10 minutes ago, Styles said:

Ban him please, mods.

whilst the gif made me chuckle a bit, you can not be serious. People get banned for bullying, insulting other members not for writing brilliant substantiated posts displaying an unpopular opinion. 

Even though I do not agree with him either(, esp. 65m are not even remotedly close to what we should get for Hazard), @BlueLion put in a lot of effort to expound his chain of reasoning which is why I greatly enjoyed his post. This is what a forum is there for, to exchange and discuss opinions. We get that a lot in recent times that someone expresses his opinion and others demand him to get punished just for doing so. IMO that is not only childish but the philosophy behind banning people for their opinions hence abolishing freedom of speech is called fascism. I am not accusing you of being fascist as you probably did not intend to do any harm but I take this as an inducement cos this is a frequent pattern: someone has an opinion, takes his time to think it through and elucidate it here and the reaction he gets are some childish, personal one liners.This is what poisons the atmosphere in a forum and I have been on numerous so forums who went downhill from there. So I just want to remind members to take a step back and use your brains when assessing an opinion that is not yours and to @BlueLion, thanks for your amazing post.

[Styles 9,790]

3 minutes ago, BlueLion said:

 

But how long can we just keep saying "he'll come good?" Don't get me wrong, I admire your optimism and hope you're correct, but in my heart of hearts all I see is a kid who doesn't appear to be happy playing his football with Chelsea. 

Me too, but thankfully we got rid of the manager who had the team playing shit on a stick football and led them to one point above the relegation zone.

Things are looking up.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Just now, Magic Lamps said:

whilst the gif made me chuckle a bit, you can not be serious. People get banned for bullying, insulting other members not for writing brilliant substantiated posts displaying an unpopular opinion. 

Even though I do not agree with him either(, esp. 65m are not even remotedly close to what we should get for Hazard), @BlueLion put in a lot of effort to expound his chain of reasoning which is why I greatly enjoyed his post. This is what a forum is there for, to exchange and discuss opinions. We get that a lot in recent times that someone expresses his opinion and others demand him to get punished just for doing so. IMO that is not only childish but the philosophy behind banning people for their opinions hence abolishing freedom of speech is called fascism. I am not accusing you of being fascist as you probably did not intend to do any harm but I take this as an inducement cos this is a frequent pattern: someone has an opinion, takes his time to think it through and elucidate it here and the reaction he gets are some childish, personal one liners.This is what poisons the atmosphere in a forum and I have been on numerous so forums who went downhill from there. So I just want to remind members to take a step back and use your brains when assessing an opinion that is not yours and to @BlueLion, thanks for your amazing post.

Thanks for your comments @Magic Lamps, but @Styles did say he was joking about the banning thing. The whole point of a forum is to debate and to discuss conflicting opinions - it is clear my assessment is an unpopular one about a popular player, and that is bound to result in some discussion. But it's all in good taste, don't worry! The whole point is we can debate and disagree with each other, but do so in an adult fashion  We're all Chelsea fans, but it's good we don't all share the same opinions. Otherwise this would be one boring place to chat about things!

[Stats 6,988]

4 minutes ago, didierforever said:

dude, did you and skipper forget how to read and understand?

when the fuck did i want jose back? i wanted the same treatment to be given to the players with worse attitudes and performances than jose. tell me a post where i said i want jose back. 

u need to understand what i person is speaking about.

Well my bad if you never actually said that then but it is utterly ridiculous imo to say he has no balls. Because he subsituted himself twice and saved himself from more damage? Yet both times he has been injured he has mised our next game? Yeah, really lacking balls... People really won't realise what we have missed until he has gone.

[Styles 9,790]

2 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

whilst the gif made me chuckle a bit, you can not be serious. People get banned for bullying, insulting other members not for writing brilliant substantiated posts displaying an unpopular opinion. 

Even though I do not agree with him either(, esp. 65m are not even remotedly close to what we should get for Hazard), @BlueLion put in a lot of effort to expound his chain of reasoning which is why I greatly enjoyed his post. This is what a forum is there for, to exchange and discuss opinions. We get that a lot in recent times that someone expresses his opinion and others demand him to get punished just for doing so. IMO that is not only childish but the philosophy behind banning people for their opinions hence abolishing freedom of speech is called fascism. I am not accusing you of being fascist as you probably did not intend to do any harm but I take this as an inducement cos this is a frequent pattern: someone has an opinion, takes his time to think it through and elucidate it here and the reaction he gets are some childish, personal one liners.This is what poisons the atmosphere in a forum and I have been on numerous so forums who went downhill from there. So I just want to remind members to take a step back and use your brains when assessing an opinion that is not yours and to @BlueLion, thanks for your amazing post.

I was hoping people would see it as a joke, I was not being serious AT ALL. Like, not even a little bit.

@BlueLion is a cool poster.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

7 minutes ago, Styles said:

Me too, but thankfully we got rid of the manager who had the team playing shit on a stick football and led them to one point above the relegation zone.

Things are looking up.

If that was the case, and Jose was the cause for Eden's downturn in form and confidence, then I hope (and expect) a strong end to the season from him. I hope to god I'm wrong and just being hormonal about him (I stand by what I said as being a fair assessment/summary of my thoughts about Hazard at this particular moment in time), and I hope he does prove me wrong, because he is probably my favourite outfield player at Chelsea now Lampard and Drogba have gone. Like I say, I'm just not very confident that he will turn around and do so. However I would be quite happy for Hazard to score a hat-trick in the next game and you all give me some serious shit about it. 

[DYC. 7,542]

One poor season after three strong seasons and this is the kind of stuff you get. Season isn't even close to be being over yet.

Today's football world sad. Even Zidane was allowed an off season. Rooney plays like crap and he gets pay raises and the armband. But I guess that's the other extreme.

[El P. 1,354]

This whole "lack of this, lack of that" will be gone as soon as he scores a goal. A then it will be, "omg, he is finally his old self, yaay!".

I think he is trying, giving himself, and he tried to stay on pitch even injured (hip injury), but was later taken off. This time he went out more rapidly after injury, so what? He is missing for 2-3 weeks, that injury can't be so minor!

It's just... He made standards of his play so high last years. BUT... He WAS NEVER a player who runs like a maniac, who is all over the pitch and who tries the most. I don't see any difference with that actually, only now his attacking play is not so good, ofc, and people are slating him for every little normal thing.

Well, he was never a hard worker on pitch, my friends. Why didn't you slated him before then, too? Yeah, because he scored.

[Blue Armour 4,176]

3 hours ago, Styles said:

I'm joking to be honest, but I do disagree.

I just don't understand how anybody can advocate selling one of our most talented players and best performers over the last 3 seasons. He has had a bad season so far and has underperformed considering what he is capable of, but even the very best players suffer seasons like this. I wouldn't sell him because of that.

Also, when a player knows he's injured and can't continue any further he has absolutely every right to withdraw himself from the game. Hazard has been a recipient of some of the most over-the-top tackles during his time at Chelsea and yet he has played through most of them. He is one of the most durable players of his kind - this is the first year he's had consistent injury problems. And he tried to carry on playing last weekend but simply couldn't.

I think like a lot of supporters you are just fed up and are criticising everybody and anything. I think you will regret this sooner rather than later though.

 

Can't agree more..haven't had this much personality and talent rolled up into a Chelsea player since Drogba. The club has to try its best to hold onto him as long as they can, even if it means excusing poor seasons like this one.

 

(And before someone comes back to me saying that Drogba had a never-say-die attitude unlike Hazard, I said 'personality', not 'character')

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, Styles said:

I was hoping people would see it as a joke, I was not being serious AT ALL. Like, not even a little bit.

@BlueLion is a cool poster.

You do realize @BlueLion is no longer an admin? Pointless trying to kiss his arse.

[Styles 9,790]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

You do realize @BlueLion is no longer an admin? Pointless trying to kiss his arse.

Oh...... 

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, DYC. said:

One poor season after three strong seasons and this is the kind of stuff you get. Season isn't even close to be being over yet.

Today's football world sad. Even Zidane was allowed an off season. Rooney plays like crap and he gets pay raises and the armband. But I guess that's the other extreme.

It's like people never learned with the De Bruyne, Lukaku scenarios...

2 hours ago, El P. said:

This whole "lack of this, lack of that" will be gone as soon as he scores a goal. A then it will be, "omg, he is finally his old self, yaay!".

Just like how the fans booed Costa in the Sunderland match and suddenly it's all 'Diego, Diego, Diego' in the following games.

[Last Sicarius 610]

Hazard on his way to Real?

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Ruben Loftus Cheek has more goals this season than Eden Hazard...

[Weckerz 3,781]

And people wonder why they call us plastic. Haha.

Keeping Iazzard should be our priority this summer. Naive fans who think we'll buy Reus or Bale or even Isco need a reality check.

edit;: assuming he starts performing in the second half of the season, obviously, which he will if he can knock off his little injuries

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

16 hours ago, BlueLion said:

 

 

 

Sorry but that's just ridiculous. Do you really need the expertise of medics and doctors to realize you can't run ? After his fall against Leicester he was struggling to just walk off the pitch. He actually had to pause and take a couple of seconds before he could continue walking again to the touchline. I mean he missed the next game and then almost 2 weeks later he still wasn't 100 % and only played 25 minutes. Seems like pretty conclusive proof that the injury was serious.

Against Palace he strained his groin taking a shot on goal, tried to continue and 5 minutes later he slipped which worsened the injury. Again do you really need a medic or doctor's expertise to realize you've strained your groin and shouldn't continue ?

Also it's pretty clear that he wasn't 100 % when he came in against Watford and started against Man United 2 days later. Hiddink even said so. No coincidence that he injured his groin on the same side as his hip injury.

 

You say his attitude stinks. That he shows zero fight and commitment but if that really was the case then why didn't he just tell Hiddink that he wasn't 100 % and couldn't play against Watford (Won the penalty remember?), Man United and Palace ?

Why go through the trouble ? Why would he try if his attitude stinks ? If he doesn't want to fight ? If he isn't commited to us ? Why try ?

 

I get the feeling that due to Hazard's lack of injuries people seem to think that he's always 100 %. That he never plays with minor injuries, which is simply impossible with the amount of times he gets the absolute shit kicked out of him. 

I think a lot of people underestimate Hazard's abillity to presevere, to play with injuries. He's played 188 games for us in 3 and a half seasons. (stat stolen from Styles ) 

There's no way he played all those games, in such a short time, without having to go through pain and other difficulties from injuries. I mean how many times does he get kicked from behind on the ankles and his achilles. How many times have oppponents stomped on his feet.

How many times have they kicked him on the legs because they were either to slow or trying to cynically stop him.

There's no way he could have played all those games without being strong-willed to play.

 

"He is the most undeserving recipient of the Player of the Year award I can remember"

Let's be fair, he had several good spells last season, but in terms of consistency, the fact he beat Terry, Azpilicueta and Matic, who were all utterly outstanding from start to finish, to that accolade was an absolute piss-take

It really wasn't. You're rewriting history there. Last season he wasn't great in the first 2 months( August & September) but from October he was performing really well and created lots of chances. Only difference between before january and after january is that he became more decisive. After January and onwards he got the goals and assists that won us games. 

Pretty sure Matic was among the players that had a dip in form around the january period. Him, Cahill, Ivanovic dropping form was a big reason of why we went more pragmatic. ( along with Fabregas, Oscar and Costa dropping form aswell)

Terry and Azpi were consistent but as a defender it's easier being consistent as there are quite a number of games where our defense had very little to do. Before january we were dominating the opponents and they weren't really able to threaten us that much.

After january we went very defensive which made it easier for our defenders as they had more support. To be clear not saying they didn't have great season but were their performances of such a level that they deserved the accolade over Hazard ?

No I don't think so.

Hazard carried our attack that second part of the season. It was all on him to create our chances. He had a free role but in exchange was given very little support. In difficult circumstances, with the title on the line, he stepped up. If he didn't we wouldn't have won the league.

 

Why would Bale, James, Griezmann want to come here ? Why would they leave their club that has CL football for one that doesn't ? I've seen people say "well it would only be for 1 season" but we can't guarantee that so why would they take the risk.

Also they have other teams after them aswell that can offer CL football next season. So again why would they come here ? Reus is injury prone. Just take a look at his injury record.  I don't think he would take too well to the PL.

The tackles, the amount games we play in short time, no winter break.

"We play better without him"

And you're basing this on what exactly ? The Sunderland game ? Watford game ?  Palace game ? 

We've been a bit better under Hiddink. All the players seem to be performing better under him.

Before you make such claims shouldn't you actually wait untill Hazard plays a couple of games under Hiddink ?

So far he's played 25 minutes against Watford and 90 minutes against Man United. He won the penalty against Watford that should have won us the 3 points and created the best chance for us in the Man United game, playing out of position, while not being 100% fit.

 

Ivanovic gets slagged off more because he's  clearly passed his best. While he's improved his performances from the beginning of the season he still gets beaten far too easily in 1 on 1 situations and his attacking contributions are close to zero even though he gets the most space out of all our players.

Hazard became 25 just a couple of days ago. He still has a lot of football left to play and it's a lot more likely that he'll regain his form.

 

Don't get why you're bringing up Drogba's return. I don't think anyone here actually believes Drogba is coming back to motivate Hazard to stay. He's simply here to appease the fans.

 

Honestly don't want to go too deep into the whole Azpi left back thing as this post is already extremely long. I'll just say this.

I don't like Azpi on the left. Azpi on the left is an extremely negative, pragmatic choice. Hazard would thrive (and would have thrived) much more if he got (had gotten) an actual left footed attacking fullback overlapping him.

 

"You aren't allowed the freedom in the Premier League that Barcelona can offer Messi, Neymar, and Suarez."

City frequently play with 2 attacking fullbacks, a 2 man midfield consisting of Fernandinho and Yaya Touré and a front four Sterling Silva De Bruyne Aguero.

It's possible if you have the balls.

It doesn't have to be so extreme as Barcelona but it is possible for our widemen not to have to defend so deep. If you push up your defense then your attackers, along with your midfield, have far less ground to cover. Otherwise our front players have to constantly run 40- 50-60 yards to get back into position then when we recover the ball they have to run 40-50-60 yards before they get into the final third of the opposition.

 

Willian is Willian, Hazard is Hazard. Willian doesn't have the abillity that Hazard has on the ball. Hazard doesn't have the stamina and workrate that Willian has. Play them to their strenghts and don't shoehorn them into a role that doesn't suit them.

 

"as a number 10 (where he struggles to impose himself on the opposition)" 

Struggles to impose huh. Norwich, Stoke and Stoke in the COC. He's played his best games this season on the 10.