Eden Hazard

[bababoom 4,478]

Hazard ball control is GREAT, he will be great for us next games. He will become our best player

I have no doubt he'll be one of our main players next season.

[Hkibou 622]

That's why I would have prefered that he had Puel as a coach, at least during a year when he was 18-19 than Garcia.

The positional play of the team under Garcia has never been very good for me, an imbalanced team.

Under Puel, Hazard was used exclusively on the wings. He was still very young then and giving his pace and dribbling abilities it was the logical decision. When Garcia arrived at Lille, Hazard was used to play on the wings and nobody ever thought of placing him at the heart of the game, because he was doing so well on the left wing.

I'm pretty confident Hazard wouldn't have become the player he is today with only puel as a coach, for several reasons. First, Puel doesn't play with a playmaker, for the good reason that he doesn't relay on the possession of the ball to win matches. Puel's tactic is based on counter attacks and velocity. Very direct game.

Garcia changed the philosophy of the club. The main idea was to confiscate the ball, and have the offensive players switch positions constantly. In a matter of weeks, Lille went from a United type of play to a Barça like tactic.

Hence Hazard was compelled to get more involved in the construction of the actions, and to wander freely on the field. Under Puel, his most useful skills were his dribbling and pace (Ronaldo like) whereas under Garcia it was his passing and his ability to lead the attack (Iniesta like).

IMO, being coached by Garcia made him a more complete player, able to adapt to many championships and tactics.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

If he develops his body balance to be stronger on the ball, he would be even more deadly.

Watch messi, and compare with iniesta. Iniesta is also a good dribbler like hazard but falls with any slight contact and it reduces the amount of pple he can dribble. But messi's strength takes him the extra people to dribble.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

He's neither a Mata or Ronaldo. He is a Hybrid.

[Hkibou 622]

He's London's Blue flash

Liked him better when he was Lille's red flash though...

[TrippingStep 336]

Under Puel, Hazard was used exclusively on the wings. He was still very young then and giving his pace and dribbling abilities it was the logical decision. When Garcia arrived at Lille, Hazard was used to play on the wings and nobody ever thought of placing him at the heart of the game, because he was doing so well on the left wing.

I'm pretty confident Hazard wouldn't have become the player he is today with only puel as a coach, for several reasons. First, Puel doesn't play with a playmaker, for the good reason that he doesn't relay on the possession of the ball to win matches. Puel's tactic is based on counter attacks and velocity. Very direct game.

Garcia changed the philosophy of the club. The main idea was to confiscate the ball, and have the offensive players switch positions constantly. In a matter of weeks, Lille went from a United type of play to a Barça like tactic.

Hence Hazard was compelled to get more involved in the construction of the actions, and to wander freely on the field. Under Puel, his most useful skills were his dribbling and pace (Ronaldo like) whereas under Garcia it was his passing and his ability to lead the attack (Iniesta like).

IMO, being coached by Garcia made him a more complete player, able to adapt to many championships and tactics.

I'm not sure.

In the youth category and in the eurou17, he was used as a trequartista. Under Puel, he was only 17 in januari and when he came as a substitue, he was often used as a forward or just behind it.

It's in the first year with Garcia that he was used in the wing, quite high in the pitch and that he would dribble a lot.

It's only the year of the title, that he was used a lot more in the build-up like I wanted, he was playing behind Sow and Gervinho.

If you look at Garcia's team, it's often imbalanced and he relies a lot on individuality for his goals, Bastos and his shots from distance, letting Gervinho run a lot with the ball while he was better without it.

For me there would have been more one touch passing under Puel than Garcia, I don't remember Lille playing good passing move from the back under pressure, two three fast passes to move the ball away from a pressing zone.

For me Garcia is like Mancini, not a good coach but City and Inter were champions because of the quality of their attacking players but in Europe the team play was not good.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

If you watched him with Lille and now with Chelsea, the biggest difference is TEMPO! I think we should try Hazard + Moses close to each other cause they can link up to create a very direct attack similar to what he used to do at Lille and then have Mata on the right allowing Hazard to still link up with him.

Mata - Hazard - Moses

Ba

The only problem with this though is that if our pivot can't get the ball to Hazard further up the pitch then he can't link up with others and run behind the back 4. Right now our attacking mids have to drop so deep that they are facing two lines of defence, you get by one and the second thwarts the forward momentum.

The amount of times I've seen Mata drop so deep to start our attacks from the half way line disgusts me.

[Hkibou 622]

I don't remember Eden playing as forward under Puel ? For me he was mostly used as a supersub on the wings who would destroy tired defenders at the end of the game with his acceleration and overall speed.

Then when Garcia arrived, he continued using him on the wings but the type of play he implemented compelled Hazard to get more involved and come get the ball deeper in the field (especially because, as you say, the team under Garcia often face difficulties evacuating dangerous zones properly). And also he could leave his wing more easily to make place for the runs for the right/leftbacks, who are far more offensive with Garcia's tactic than Puel's.

This was even more true when Bastos left and Gervinho replaced him, because the Ivorian would naturally run toward the box from his right wing, forcing Hazard, on the left flank, to counter balance Gervinho's tendency so that Cabaye and Balmont were not left alone in the build-up. That's why IMO Eden had less goals and assists than Gervais (but not less talent, we witnessed it last year when finally he was used as a real n°10).

I agree with you on your analysis of Rudi Garcia. We're experiencing his limits at this very moment in Lille, which is still deeply mourning Hazard's departure. This coach relies indeed on very strong indvidualities, the likes of Bastos, Eden or Gervinho, or even Obraniak whose left foot was magical. But I don't agree with your analysis of Lille's game under Garcia. Despite these strong individualities in the team, they were excellent at playing together, collectively. Let's not forget that for 2 years in a row (2009-2011), Lille was the team with the most completed passes in Ligue 1.

That's why a player like Cabaye, the metronom of the team, was so important in the field. And a forward like Moussa Sow, IMO, could never have finished the season with 25 goals if not playing in a very strong team, collectively speaking.

[Peppi85 110]

Hazard's finishing has always been mediocre. He is not the clinical finisher that Lampard is, nor even near as good as someone like Mata or Ramires, actually. He is often afraid to shoot and very, very rarely shoots from distance even when there is an opening. It relates back to his early time at Lille when he was heavily criticised for his selfishness.

Hazard never been critisised for that?!

In fact it's the opposite... They kept saying that he should go for his own chances!

btw Lampard & Mata have missed a lotta great chances lately...

btw; I'm on the same level as Hkibou on the other discussion.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I think Hazard's profil is more like D.Silva , not Ronaldo

More Ribery esque IMO.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

More Ribery esque IMO.

Agreed but lesser pace and more trickery.

[Wiillowhobo 28]

If he develops his body balance to be stronger on the ball, he would be even more deadly.

Watch messi, and compare with iniesta. Iniesta is also a good dribbler like hazard but falls with any slight contact and it reduces the amount of pple he can dribble. But messi's strength takes him the extra people to dribble.

Messi is faster than Iniesta and Hazard and has even more close control while dribbling at full speed, that's why he's deadlier and can dribble past more players. If you want to tackle Messi, you'd have to be real fast and your timing has to be impeccable. Iniesta and Hazard fall over because if they wouldn't they would loose the ball anyway because of the loss of pace. That doesn't take away it's a foul and they surely aren't divers.

[Leif 6,006]

Put Hazard on the right, nurture him a bit more there, switch him to the left in 2/3 seasons, and boom. We'll have our own little Ribery but with more flair

[bitee 12]

spain 'd be better for him

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Messi is faster than Iniesta and Hazard and has even more close control while dribbling at full speed, that's why he's deadlier and can dribble past more players. If you want to tackle Messi, you'd have to be real fast and your timing has to be impeccable. Iniesta and Hazard fall over because if they wouldn't they would loose the ball anyway because of the loss of pace. That doesn't take away it's a foul and they surely aren't divers.

I know messi is faster but he is tackled more and still stays on his feet (people applaud him for not falling down) iniesta and hazard can hardly stay on their feet if you compare to messi.

[bitee 12]

hazard is as fast as messi on the 10 first meters

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

Azpi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87d5OhiqSpo

[Jase 43,479]

Azpi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87d5OhiqSpo

Azpi translates and used in background!