Eden Hazard

[Mohammed Seif 1,451]

The thing is opposition teams now understand how to stop us,Put 3 men on Eden and we cant do shit.Thats how much we are dependent on Hazard.Players like Willian and Oscar are in the team more because of their pressing and defensive ability rather then their offensive prowess which has become very frustrating for me.Having a competent striker alone wont solve all our problems because we need the likes of Oscar,Willian and Schurrle to stand up and take the load of Eden also having more dynamic fullbacks wont be bad.

Though I agree with you that Eden's teammates need to improve and step up, having three players covering Eden is not a bad thing. It means three players are going to be out of position (or atleast two) and there is space that they left and we should take that to our advantage. But yes like you said it requires Willian, Oscar, Schurrle to step up and ofcourse Eto and the strikers.

[Special Juan 27,106]

He plays alongside an average Eto'o or a crap Torres or a very poor Demba Ba.....he is also flanked by a very under-performing Oscar, an in and out Willian and Schurrle who is in and out both of form and the team.

T.E.A.M....means this

Together Everyone Achieves More

[yuvala 2,167]

The thing is opposition teams now understand how to stop us,Put 3 men on Eden and we cant do shit.Thats how much we are dependent on Hazard.Players like Willian and Oscar are in the team more because of their pressing and defensive ability rather then their offensive prowess which has become very frustrating for me.Having a competent striker alone wont solve all our problems because we need the likes of Oscar,Willian and Schurrle to stand up and take the load of Eden also having more dynamic fullbacks wont be bad.

Yea.. No one can create anything except for Hazard. get 3 players to mark him and we're dead in the water.

It's been pretty clear to me that except for the fact that Oscar and Willian are not really good enough yet, our system and our lack of attacking full-backs are a HUGE problem and have a big impact on our game (bad impact, ofc).

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Though I agree with you that Eden's teammates need to improve and step up, having three players covering Eden is not a bad thing. It means three players are going to be out of position (or atleast two) and there is space that they left and we should take that to our advantage. But yes like you said it requires Willian, Oscar, Schurrle to step up and ofcourse Eto and the strikers.

Ofcourse It's a good thing that 3 players of the opposition are worried about just one of our player and we all know Hazard in full form can dominate even while being triple marked but our problem is that the rest of our attacking players are not on the same wavelength as Eden and dont make use of the space they will get.It's a big problem.

Yea.. No one can create anything except for Hazard. get 3 players to mark him and we're dead in the water.

It's been pretty clear to me that except for the fact that Oscar and Willian are not really good enough yet, our system and our lack of attacking full-backs are a HUGE problem and have a big impact on our game (bad impact, ofc).

The thing is people are quick to criticize Hazard by using the likes of Ronaldo and Messi's consistency as an example.There are however two problems with that a)Messi and Ronaldo are ruthless and merciless freaks of nature b)Even though Messi and Ronaldo are out of this world and none of the current young stars(Gotze,Eden,Neymar) look like they will be reaching their level anytime soon,They still have an amazing nay World class supporting cast.I mean Messi plays with Iniesta,Xavi,Neymar,Sanchez,Busquets,Pedro,Alves while Ronaldo has Di Maria,Benzema,Bale,Alonso,Marcelo,Luka fucking Modric,Isco.While do you know who Hazard is playing with?Ramires and Fucking Torres yet people still expect miracles from him.Eto'o and Mata are two players with great intelligence and technique and Hazard wasnt too bad with them now was he?

[Henrique 9,133]

Needs to be more arrogant in his play, there was a 2 on 2 situation where we broke and he tried to pass instead of driving in and shooting.

and there was a situation where he had to pass but instead tried a stupid shoot that was easily blocked by a PSG defender.

Its about decisions making, its not a matter of being more or less selfish.

[Strike 6,986]

Hazard is more of creator like Iniesta, not forward like Ronaldo/Messi. Nobody to create for at the moment

[Henrique 9,133]

Ofcourse It's a good thing that 3 players of the opposition are worried about just one of our player and we all know Hazard in full form can dominate even while being triple marked but our problem is that the rest of our attacking players are not on the same wavelength as Eden and dont make use of the space they will get.It's a big problem.

The thing is people are quick to criticize Hazard by using the likes of Ronaldo and Messi's consistency as an example.There are however two problems with that a)Messi and Ronaldo are ruthless and merciless freaks of nature b)Even though Messi and Ronaldo are out of this world and none of the current young stars(Gotze,Eden,Neymar) look like they will be reaching their level anytime soon,They still have an amazing nay World class supporting cast.I mean Messi plays with Iniesta,Xavi,Neymar,Sanchez,Busquets,Pedro,Alves while Ronaldo has Di Maria,Benzema,Bale,Alonso,Marcelo,Luka fucking Modric,Isco.While do you know who Hazard is playing with?Ramires and Fucking Torres yet people still expect miracles from him.Eto'o and Mata are two players with great intelligence and technique and Hazard wasnt too bad with them now was he?

I think such thing happen because some people are quick to put Hazard in a level he is not yet. Hazard is a inconsistent player, who plays great in some matches but disappear in others, and its clear he is one of the players Mourinho was referring to.

When the team was on fire, people were saying Hazard was the reason why we were winning, but when the team is underperforming and Hazard is disappearing, some people quickly remember that football is collective game.

Someone said Liverpool fans were idiots because they believe Sturridge is better than Hazard, but comparing both for me is far from a madness. Specially when we realize Sturridge has better stats. For me thats Hazard level at this moment. He is more Sturridge than Ronaldo, in terms of his level.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I prefered him under Benitez.

Oscar was also better under Benitez.

There's no pattern in how to break defences.

Look at his Real Madrid team last year against Manchester United who was just sitting, putting no pressure on Real Madrid Players and all they were doing was passing sideways in front of them waiting for a Manchester United error. No team play and quick rehearsed movements to stretch and put real pressure on them.

Real Madrid are also playing better this year.

Mourinho I think is not that great for players that would play best in a spanish possession team with quick combinations and passes.

This year it's the same high and low that he had at Lille. He was much more consistent the last 3-4 months under Benitez.

I hate the low line of our defence, the slow passing between our defenders and midfielders.

Partly agree on that. As much we are better defending, we are average in attack. No runs in free spaces, no creativty, no pattern, no passing triangles, no one-twos. Fullbacks not joining in attacks...

Mou needs to at least try something about that. If we play counter football it doesnt mean we have to play with such lack of technique.

Look at Bvb last year counter football. Their attacks were joy to watch. Everyone invloving in attacks, defending. Trying to pass, create spaces, make intelligent runs and passes.

It takes time though for such play and Mou will have to show it next year.

[Barbara 15,149]

The way some supporters talk as if we're just one striker away is nuts. We have deeper issues than just a striker.

I think many people actually believe that we only missed a striker to win EPL which I don't think is farfetched. Then we could have killed a few matches we created chances but didn't convert them and ended up dropping points.

It doesn't mean though that we only miss a striker. We need more but a decent striker could have prevented us from dropping those points. Then we'd still be top of the table. Different discussions altogether

[haranr 485]

Eden was brilliant, best player on the pitch in the first half. Second half??// WTFFFF?????????? I mean he must be more consistent but everyone were shit so.....

[Eligius 121]

Jallet was better than hazard last night.

The weakest link in PSG. Hazard allowed him to get behind him so many times. Imagine had Van der weil played how many times he would of been exposed.

It was similar to when Ozil played and got subbed off because the fullbacks kept attacking Ozil side.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

I think such thing happen because some people are quick to put Hazard in a level he is not yet. Hazard is a inconsistent player, who plays great in some matches but disappear in others, and its clear he is one of the players Mourinho was referring to.

When the team was on fire, people were saying Hazard was the reason why we were winning, but when the team is underperforming and Hazard is disappearing, some people quickly remember that football is collective game.

Someone said Liverpool fans were idiots because they believe Sturridge is better than Hazard, but comparing both for me is far from a madness. Specially when we realize Sturridge has better stats. For me thats Hazard level at this moment. He is more Sturridge than Ronaldo, in terms of his level.

People talk about him dissapearing out of games but it's pretty difficult to influence the game as an attacking player when you don't have the ball. Only have to look at the second half against PSG. Also how is it that he's constantly getting marked by 3 players yet is still able to be our most dangerous player ?

Also somehow manages to be the player, in all 5 top competitions, with the most chances created and our lead goalscorer and assister. Pretty good for an inconsistent player.

Lol Sturridge. Sturridge plays in a team that dominates possesion where he constantly gets support and he's playing alongside the best striker in the PL.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

I keep going back to the idea of what Hazard would be like if he played for Real or Barca and things start to get scary. It's not to say he can't be superstar player but he hasn't shown the ability to be consistently dominant game in and game out..

You put him on Madrid or Barca and his assist total would be about 20-25 right now. It's bordering on sickening in regard to how many glorious passes/crosses have been fluffed by Chelsea's shambolic strike force, and I'm not even getting into the poor/non-existent runs that are being made or the necessary runs that aren't being made.

He's creating the most chances of any of the top players in the world yet his goal and assist numbers while quite good don't accurately reflect how good he has been.

That being said he needs to be more selfish, he needs to spend the entire summer working on his finishing, and he needs to find a way to force his influence on a game.

It's almost a case of him being too good at times and the others can't assimilate those ideas into their games.

[duo11bluecl 207]

I keep going back to the idea of what Hazard would be like if he played for Real or Barca and things start to get scary. It's not to say he can't be superstar player but he hasn't shown the ability to be consistently dominant game in and game out..

You put him on Madrid or Barca and his assist total would be about 20-25 right now. It's bordering on sickening in regard to how many glorious passes/crosses have been fluffed by Chelsea's shambolic strike force, and I'm not even getting into the poor/non-existent runs that are being made or the necessary runs that aren't being made.

He's creating the most chances of any of the top players in the world yet his goal and assist numbers while quite good don't accurately reflect how good he has been.

That being said he needs to be more selfish, he needs to spend the entire summer working on his finishing, and he needs to find a way to force his influence on a game.

It's almost a case of him being too good at times and the others can't assimilate those ideas into their games.

You know it never works that way, just because you have Hazard on the left, CR7 up top, Di Maria in the middle and Bale on the right it means it will be fluid unstoppable football. It doesn't work like that, there will ALWAYS be teams out there who will find a way to stop them, always. No one, no matter how many good players in the team can become unbeatable. And since they are practically pissing over 17 others BBVA teams anyway, he will be signed for the CL only. Now the question is if Madrid or whoever comes up with £100-£150m for him, can we refuse? No.

So I think he might as well stay here if he wants to become a legend one day(potential) or go to play for that 'dream club' and just become another Bale. Yh it is good he will probably win league titles every 2-3 years but so what? is this worth it and just be a 'part' of it or would you want to be the STAR of the team? Also if you put Ba in Barca team now he would also be on around 20 goals right now, the amount of tapping in for Barca/Madrid are insane because BBVA isa joke of a defense for most teams.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

You know it never works that way, just because you have Hazard on the left, CR7 up top, Di Maria in the middle and Bale on the right it means it will be fluid unstoppable football. It doesn't work like that, there will ALWAYS be teams out there who will find a way to stop them, always. No one, no matter how many good players in the team can become unbeatable. And since they are practically pissing over 17 others BBVA teams anyway, he will be signed for the CL only. Now the question is if Madrid or whoever comes up with £100-£150m for him, can we refuse? No.

So I think he might as well stay here if he wants to become a legend one day(potential) or go to play for that 'dream club' and just become another Bale. Yh it is good he will probably win league titles every 2-3 years but so what? is this worth it and just be a 'part' of it or would you want to be the STAR of the team? Also if you put Ba in Barca team now he would also be on around 20 goals right now, the amount of tapping in for Barca/Madrid are insane because BBVA isa joke of a defense for most teams.

Oh I didn't mean it like that. I just mean that Hazard needs some players on his level who are capable of understanding his brialliance and who can play an extremely high technical level of football, and because that isn't the case his goals and assist numbers are lower than they should be.

I want him to stay at Chelsea I was just suggesting that if he had a stronger supporting cast his numbers (goals and assists) would be much better.

He needs a couple of guys who can play the 1-2s but also make the strong runs and draw defenders away.

Right now the other teams can afford to double and triple team him becuse other Chelsea players aren't creating enough to draw defenders away from Hazard.

[bababoom 4,478]

He was much more consistent the last 3-4 months under Benitez.

He really wasn't, the best game he had was the one against West Ham, apart from that he was in and out of games similar to how his form is now. In the Europa league he played well, but the level in quality was pretty poor, just look at the teams we played; Sparta Prague, Steaua Bucharest, Rubin Kazan and Basel.

[Barbara 15,149]

I keep going back to the idea of what Hazard would be like if he played for Real or Barca and things start to get scary. It's not to say he can't be superstar player but he hasn't shown the ability to be consistently dominant game in and game out..

You put him on Madrid or Barca and his assist total would be about 20-25 right now. It's bordering on sickening in regard to how many glorious passes/crosses have been fluffed by Chelsea's shambolic strike force, and I'm not even getting into the poor/non-existent runs that are being made or the necessary runs that aren't being made.

He's creating the most chances of any of the top players in the world yet his goal and assist numbers while quite good don't accurately reflect how good he has been.

That being said he needs to be more selfish, he needs to spend the entire summer working on his finishing, and he needs to find a way to force his influence on a game.

It's almost a case of him being too good at times and the others can't assimilate those ideas into their games.

put him in Real Madrid or Barça and he'd have to outplay all the consistent players they have there. The only exception is Neymar - as they are the same age, have about the same consistency issues, except Hazard has one year over Neymar in a big league, so he's further into the development curve. He wouldn't displace Cris, Bale or even di María from RM right now. His best chances would be displacing Neymar - or an injured Messi that has had ups and downs this season because of his physical issues. And how fair is to expect or ask him to displace the best player in the world, or a guy who's been playing in RM for as long as di María has? It's not fair. But I think it's delusional to think he'd step in those teams being as inconsistent as he is at the moment and for him to have the stats you believe he'd have there, he'd have to play. He can't have them from the bench. Would Barça sacrifice Xavi? Or Iniesta? Someone has to leave the team for him to be part of it and the only case I see is Neymar. Even then, chances are if he went to Barça right now he might not completely displace Neymar and have enough matches under his belt to have those stats. You just assume he'd be part of those teams when in reality he wouldn't. That's why he should take the best our of his Chelsea period - however long that may be - as he's playing week in, week out, 90 minutes.

I'm very patient with Eden, I believe he has a lot of potential and I believe he's doing very good things at the present, but I think people are too fast to exempt him from everything he doesn't do and blame everyone else for it. He's still too inconsistent. Better players by his side would have helped him with stats, not with consistency. He still had bad periods last year with Mata by his side the same way he's had a great streak this year with 'nobody' by his side. Still he isn't the player of said streak anymore. His first months in the season aren't that much worth mentioning, then he exploded, now he's faded a little bit - all this with exactly the same players - good or bad - by his side. That's on him, not on anyone else. But that's expected from a 23yo... he isn't supposed to be as consistent as di María, Ronaldo, Bale, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi (although some of those are having a bit of dig of their own form).

But I think there's a certain of protectionism towards him that harms him more than helps. if I'm the best at whatever I do the expectations about my results should rise instead of lower simply because I'm better than the others. I can't expect Ramires to be better at passing when he simply doesn't have the ability in him, I can expect Hazard to be better at making decisions than Rami because his football IQ is infinitely better than Ramires. But just because Hazard is smarter and has more vision and does 5 good plays using it he gets a free pass not to use it even further?The only logical thing in my head is to demand more from those who have more to offer. We can't make Ramires be reborn and that's what we ask when we want him to be more technical. It's out of his reach. Hazard in the other hand could do better because he has a ceiling, a capacity, a skill, a competency to do better. But instead we blame Ramires for being technically awful and say to Hazard he's done enough when he hasn't done half his capacity while Ramires did nearly 100% of what he's capable.

I agree with whoever said he needs players to present themselves to play 2-1's with him. That was why Mata highlighted him so much. It's not simply because Mata used all his flair, it was much more because Mata was there in the first place. A player willing to do the same role Mata did (approaching him, making themselves available) would help him improve stats, make a beautiful play, help the fluidity of our attack, but it wouldn't take away his bad decisions when he makes them. If he's in a great position to shoot but decides to pass to another player and the other guy who's in a worse position to shoot, risks it, then it's a chance created statistically when imo in reality it's a chance WASTED by Hazard himself. That happens more often than I'd like it to happen.

Another situation also happens more frequently than I'd like. We break into the counter. Hazard receives the ball around the midfield line and three opponents close down on him. Way too often he goes for the dribble - even against three guys - instead of passing to Schurrle for example - who's more often than not very well positioned. Even Oscar, Willian, Torres (but that'd be a waste, so I can give Eden credit here) are available to the pass, but he decides to slow down the play dragging those three players with him (dribbles included or not). Rewatch the match against PSG and count - especially in the second - how many times he's done exactly that.

It's a walking contradiction. We have a player that can dribble like few can, but sometimes instead of fuel our counter-attack, he dampers it. He drags three players with him, which means there are two less players to mark the other attackers. Obvious move? To pass the ball quickly to them (dribbles included or not), but many times he holds it. It's stretching the space others have, but it's only capitalized if he makes the quick pass (which he sometimes does). You know who I'd blame here (supposing someone is to blame in the first place)? Mourinho. But I'll divide this post in two to talk about Mourinho's part in all this.

[Barbara 15,149]

The issues Eden has on his own game should be worked more closely by Mourinho. Mourinho is there to be his guide, not only to say he's capable of being one of the best in the world, giving him a lot of confidence, allowing him to have tons of freedom and do whatever he wants, instead of guiding him on what he should be doing. How many times have people quoted (I think even Eden himself) Mourinho saying the only thing he tells Hazard before matches is that he can do whatever he wants? Sorry, Mou, the kid needs more direct guidances than just that. If no one tells him his decisions aren't the best, he won't improve them because in his mind he's probably doing what's best. What's the point of us being a counter-attack team with some great players for it (Willian, Schurrle, Salah all have incredible pace, Schurrle doesn't dribble much, but he passes by opponents easily, same goes with Willian and I'm positive Salah too) if it seems we don't have counter-attacks well drilled? I was observing PSG during the match and there was a corner for us that was deflected by defense and Thiago Motta (I guess) passed the ball from the edge of their box to the left side of midfield line without even looking there. And guess what? Lavezzi - I guess - was there. How did Thiago know without even looking? They did that in training, obviously.

Mourinho said in December he'd have to take a more defensive approach with the team because they weren't ready to do what he's planned. And we clearly did from the Arsenal match on. So maybe he's decided to change the slow development for short terms results, to ensure we'd be top4 or maybe even fight for the title. It's his call to make, his decision to take. He did what he thought was better for us and I hope he took into consideration the long term aspect because we seem kind of lost attacking. We don't seem to know what to do with the ball when we have it and while a lot of that is because we don't have a good striker to capitalize or because our pivot players have limited vision and technique and whatnot, we also seem to be lacking training in that area. But maybe Mourinho had to sacrifice it to make sure we were defensive trustworthy. The problem is Cahill and JT seemingly ran out of gas too soon. We used to say in the Luiz thread that keeping him is important because we didn't know how long JT and Cahill would carry on their amazing level. They aren't that great anymore (but Luiz is even worse). So Mourinho invested in making us more pragmatic, steady defensively, less risky, less incisive because he thought his attacking players weren't ready yet to be what he needed them to be. The problem right now is that we haven't been executing even the pragmatism well anymore. That's why I said if I had to blame someone I'd blame him, thing is I don't blame anyone in reality because this team is far from being ready and Mourinho isn't taking a lot of risks. Should he? I don't think he should. As I said, Eden is 23. So is Schurrle. Oscar is 22, Salah is 20 I guess. Willian is 25, but he only played in Ukraine and Russia since he left Brazil at age 18. Torres is useless, Iva is useless attacking, Azpili is playing in the opposite side he's naturally meant to - which also compromises his attacking influence. Should we risk our left side by bringing Cole - who's had a terrible season even when he wasn't injured - just so we have Azpili in his rightful side? So we have a good right side both defensive and offensive and we have a liability as big as the flank itself in the left with Cole? Not an easy decision to make. Also there's no one in that team that gives more to it than Mr. Branislav Ivanovic. When did we watch that man not play with his blood and heart for us? You can't ignore that when so many don't do the same.

With all those problems and limitations we were a striker away from winning EPL imo, we are three players away from the ideal starting XI but God knows how much time we are away from making this team live up its potential. A football system is a living system, just like our body. All parts have to work well and in harmony otherwise it collapses. The brain is Mourinho, but even his pragmatic decisions seem to be justifiable imo. We just aren't ready. That's why we struggle to beat minor sides, that's why we probably won't win anything. That's why we stopped the evolution in the tactical movement and became more predictable, boring, etc... If we could clone Ivanovic's approach of matches into all other 8-9 players that aren't like him, we'd be ready. thing is we can't, in addition to having a lot of young players. They're young technically, tactically, but also mentally.