Eden Hazard

[The only place to be 11,313]

I expected him to shine this WC, like James did. I am quite disappointed by his performances.

Clearly he is not a world-beater yet. I just hope that some day he will become one.

One of the differences between James and Hazard is that Columbia built that team around James to get the best out of him. Fuck know's what Wilmots tactics were half the time but Eden was often marginalised and pushed to the side so De Bruyne became the most important player.

Still Eden does have a habit of looking a bit disinterested at times. We can all remember the games where he did decide to show up and run at his marker at every opportunity but those still aren't frequent enough. He HAS to do it in damn near every game next season and if he does he becomes one of the best players in the world.

And Jose has laid down the challenge. He's given him a very privileged position in the team but he's also been critical of him - it's Eden's job now to respond and I think he will....hopefully.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

If we are being 100% real, he had a horrendous world cup but all us Chelsea fans overrate and overhype him too much. Yes, he can score against Hull, or a hat-trick against Newcastle, but the reality is that he is not a player that we should build our team around. His inconsistency drives me nuts. I'll reserve my judgement until the end of next season when we have a proper striker leading the line.

I agree he is overhyped somewhat. But you make a good point in reserving your judgement until we have a proper forward leading the line. Because Hazard has literally had all the pressure on him to be the inspirational player for us, in the absence of a Drogba to stick the ball into the net. That pressure might be too much for a young man in only his second season in the Premier League.

[Zone 290]

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.

[The Mak 4,459]

I can understand the criticisms completely, but I'm not too worried at the moment.

Yes, I agree he needs to do more. I think his 'improvement' last season wasn't a big one by any stretch of the imagination. For example, his goal tally of 17 is a bit inflated due to his 5 penalties and 3 against Newcastle (including 1 pen). I do think he would've assisted more though if our front line wasn't so below average. However, he definitely lacks the consistency at the moment to make him great. We need to see more of the dominant performances like the ones against Sunderland and Newcastle or his one against a big team like Bayern in the Super Cup.

However, the reason I'm not too worried at the moment is his age. He's still very young at 23. The greats usually have that one 'breakout season' which they finally begin to fulfil their full potential and I don't think Hazard has had that yet. Ronaldo had his at 22/23. Messi was always good, but wasn't scoring a goal a game until 22/23. But comparing Hazard to these two is always unrealistic and unfair. So its probably better when you look at the likes of Robben and Ribery who both had theirs at around 24/25.

Again however, these players played in absolutely dominant teams with WC players in almost every position on the pitch. I mean, do you even compare a midfield of Mikel/Lampard/Ramires to the midfields consisting of Xavi, Scholes, Alonso, Schweinsteiger etc.? I don't think so. At the same time though, are we really complaining that Hazard isn't running the pitch and doing it all himself? It is a team game isn't it? I don't think it's a level playing field. I don't think it's totally fair on Hazard to compare him with other great players in such great teams as well.

What is different this season is that we have that beast Matic from the start. We'll finally have that midfield metronome we've been crying out for in Fabregas; meaning Hazard won't have to drop deep all the time. We'll finally have a top striker to create space; and one who has a much better chance of actually putting away the multitude of chances (created by Hazard) the likes of Torres has fluffed. Hopefully, we'll also have a LB in Luis who'll both be able to let Hazard do his thing and also support him going forward. Who knows? Perhaps Mourinho wanted Luis instead of Shaw because having a LB at the peak of his powers could fast track Hazard's potential (instead of waiting around for both Hazard's and Shaw's). If that's the case, I say screw Shaw.

Yes, I would say it's all set up nicely for Hazard to have his 'breakout season' in the next year or two (at most). However, I think we can only be 100% critical of his performances after the coming season (at least).

[Toli 977]

Some of the comments on here are absolutely hilarious, this is a world cup quarter final, the biggest stage of all, so many player's have rubbish games in these circumstances, it's such a hard tournament to light up, especially when you are often isolated.

The reality is however he is superb, on another planet to anyone else we have, he creates chances, scores his fair share and even when he has an of day his talent is obvious, he is never going to smash the 30/40 goal mark because he isn't the type of player to shoot when others are in better positions. As for passive, with respect, please, he was carrying us for most of last season.

He could become a 20 goal and 30 assist player, which would be more than enough.

Everything right, still you cant deny that he has had a bad WC. Everybody expected that this would be HIS tournament and he would show up. instead he was hiding 90% of the tournament, looking completely unintersted, no will, no hunger, nothing. his attitude was the most disgusting thing I have seen for a long time from a professional. this is the freaking biggsest tournament of the world and he seemed like he wouldnt give a f#ck about it. You can play bad but at least give everything. he seems to not have this attitude. as soon as the game isnt going his way, he seems not interested and annoyed.

Hopefully he turns up for us next season though...Mou has to change his mentality. if a 30 year old Robben can run 120 mins and fight for his team, I am sure a Hazard can do this as well. He needs to be more aggresive and direct in his game and he would shit on most defenses in the world.

[Parky 739]

The problem with Hazard's sub-par performance and Belgium overall is their manager Wilmont. No one in the team has a clue to what they should be doing on the pitch. No tempo, movement, teamwork and overall game strategy..

[Jase 43,479]

If he performs for Chelsea, I personally couldn't care less what he does for Belgium. I supported him at the world cup along with all other Chelsea player, and to be fair he was quite horrible. Though if he comes back to Chelsea and has another great season is anyone really going to complain about what happened at the world cup?

Inclined to agree. I don't care what players do for their national teams as long as they perform for us but I think what has annoyed people is that he was AWOL for pretty much the whole World Cup and we have seen this happened with us as well. He might still be young but he could at least show that bit more consistency, hunger and desire game in game out and not go MIA for 80 minutes of the game before suddenly deciding to make things happen in the other 10.

Worse part is Hazard has said so himself that he needs to do better, can improve further and even wanted to leave a mark at the World Cup like some others have but yet we saw someone whose body language projected that disinterest mood and just strolling around the pitch doing nothing.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

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.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

his attitude was the most disgusting thing I have seen for a long time from a professional.

That's an absolutely ludicrous statement.

"He could have played better but he just didn't feel like it"

Seriously?

[kellzfresh 7,226]

02

Everything right, still you cant deny that he has had a bad WC. Everybody expected that this would be HIS tournament and he would show up. instead he was hiding 90% of the tournament, looking completely unintersted, no will, no hunger, nothing. his attitude was the most disgusting thing I have seen for a long time from a professional. this is the freaking biggsest tournament of the world and he seemed like he wouldnt give a f#ck about it. You can play bad but at least give everything. he seems to not have this attitude. as soon as the game isnt going his way, he seems not interested and annoyed.

02

Hopefully he turns up for us next season though...Mou has to change his mentality. if a 30 year old Robben can run 120 mins and fight for his team, I am sure a Hazard can do this as well. He needs to be more aggresive and direct in his game and he would shit on most defenses in the world.

02

Inclined to agree. I don't care what players do for their national teams as long as they perform for us but I think what has annoyed people is that he was AWOL for pretty much the whole World Cup and we have seen this happened with us as well. He might still be young but he could at least show that bit more consistency, hunger and desire game in game out and not go MIA for 80 minutes of the game before suddenly deciding to make things happen in the other 10.

02

Worse part is Hazard has said so himself that he needs to do better, can improve further and even wanted to leave a mark at the World Cup like some others have but yet we saw someone whose body language projected that disinterest mood and just strolling around the pitch doing nothing.

To me, hazard is misused.

What we are seeing is an AM, forced to play on the wings because he has speed.

The mentality of a winger (mertens, schurrle, robben, griezman) and the mentality of AM's (hazard, ozil, gotze) are 2 different things.

Hazard and ozil have had similar dull tournaments because they are all playing in the wings most of the time. They need runners around them and they need to be in the centre of action touching the ball most of the time. I just feel because he has speed, we assumed his speed is best utilized in the wings where he has space. But I tell you the mentality to want to run at the fullback with the ball and make runs off the ball expecting a pass into space is the most important thing for a winger. Hazard doesn't have this mentality, he has a linkup, one-two, creative mentality and I think he should be played in the centre. In fact, the stats that showed he created over 80 chances last season should make this more obvious.

Mourinho did a good job of motivating him last season, but even last season, games like against fulham summed him up. First half he is secluded in the wings away from action, then second half he starts taking a free role moving more to the centre and ends up creating 2 goals.

He should move to the centre IMO, he'll be in a more natural position for him.

[Jase 43,479]

To me, hazard is misused.

What we are seeing is an AM, forced to play on the wings because he has speed.

The mentality of a winger (mertens, schurrle, robben, griezman) and the mentality of AM's (hazard, ozil, gotze) are 2 different things.

Hazard and ozil have had similar dull tournaments because they are all playing in the wings most of the time. They need runners around them and they need to be in the centre of action touching the ball most of the time. I just feel because he has speed, we assumed his speed is best utilized in the wings where he has space. But I tell you the mentality to want to run at the fullback with the ball and make runs off the ball expecting a pass into space is the most important thing for a winger. Hazard doesn't have this mentality, he has a linkup, one-two, creative mentality and I think he should be played in the centre. In fact, the stats that showed he created over 80 chances last season should make this more obvious.

Mourinho did a good job of motivating him last season, but even last season, games like against fulham summed him up. First half he is secluded in the wings away from action, then second half he starts taking a free role moving more to the centre and ends up creating 2 goals.

He should move to the centre IMO, he'll be in a more natural position for him.

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.

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.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Not too fussed about his poor performances at the World Cup tbh.A lot of greats have flopped before at this stage and a lot more will besides Eden for Belgium and Eden for Chelsea are two completely different players.He'll deliver the goods next season no doubt as long as he stays injury free(fingers crossed).One thing I do find a bit funny is that people are praising Robben to the heavens because of the superb season he just had and also because he has been tearing it up at the World Cup and saying Hazard should be more like him but they are forgetting that Robben himself has only developed this level of consistency during the last 2-3 years and before that he was a certified choker,I distinctly remember him becoming a laughing stock after the World Cup final in 2010 and UCL final hell I remember Bayern fans booing him for being too damn selfish as well.Now just because Robben is having a monster World Cup at the ripe age of 30 doesn't mean we should start taking digs at our most potent weapon going forward,Just my two cents.

[dee25 1,044]

I think the people who pointed out that he's far too passive and that he needs to develop some 'hunger,' raise a legitimate argument. This is a concern that people have had with Hazard all along. But these comments about him being overrated is nothing but a knee jerk reaction to his poor showing in the World Cup.

When Hazard was banging them in against Newcastle, Sunderland etc how come no one was calling him overrated then? When he was voted as the best young player in the league, why weren't there any comments saying "wait hang on guys, maybe we shouldn't build a team around Hazard"? When Mourinho labelled him as the best young player in the world or something to that extent why weren't there any fucking comments disagreeing with him?

There're areas that Hazard needs to improve in, and it's my hope that Mourinho can lit that fire in him. But some people have such short term memories and are so incapable of seeing past current form. It's incredible.

[Weckerz 3,781]

From hero to zero in 2 weeks, get a grip folks.

[Chelsea? 892]

I agree he is overhyped somewhat. But you make a good point in reserving your judgement until we have a proper forward leading the line. Because Hazard has literally had all the pressure on him to be the inspirational player for us, in the absence of a Drogba to stick the ball into the net. That pressure might be too much for a young man in only his second season in the Premier League.

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

[Daniel1980 1,425]

To me, hazard is misused.

What we are seeing is an AM, forced to play on the wings because he has speed.

The mentality of a winger (mertens, schurrle, robben, griezman) and the mentality of AM's (hazard, ozil, gotze) are 2 different things.

Hazard and ozil have had similar dull tournaments because they are all playing in the wings most of the time. They need runners around them and they need to be in the centre of action touching the ball most of the time. I just feel because he has speed, we assumed his speed is best utilized in the wings where he has space. But I tell you the mentality to want to run at the fullback with the ball and make runs off the ball expecting a pass into space is the most important thing for a winger. Hazard doesn't have this mentality, he has a linkup, one-two, creative mentality and I think he should be played in the centre. In fact, the stats that showed he created over 80 chances last season should make this more obvious.

Mourinho did a good job of motivating him last season, but even last season, games like against fulham summed him up. First half he is secluded in the wings away from action, then second half he starts taking a free role moving more to the centre and ends up creating 2 goals.

He should move to the centre IMO, he'll be in a more natural position for him.

I'm not so sure about it. I'm sure he'd do a better job than Oscar as the CAM, but I'm not sure he'd be any better than he is on the wing for the club. To be a great CAM a player needs to have superior passing skills and vision--reading the game, awareness of his surroundings and the ability to make himself available when he doesn't have the ball--which is not that easy, because it's easier to surround the CAM than a winger. Dribbling past defenders and DMs is harder in the centre, so it's not a solution. I'm not at all sure that he'd create more chances playing as the 10. Yes, Eden would touch the ball more, but playing in the centre doesn't necessarily equal creating more chances.

He's very good on the wing. The fact that he created so many chances playing on the wing demonstrates that he's on the right position. He just needs to be more involved and make more runs.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

From hero to zero in 2 weeks, get a grip folks.

As he is our best player it is normal really to get hyped as soon as he does any sort of positive impact on the pitch even though cutting back for 2 tap ins aren't really that amazing. In truth he had a terrible WC and never really influenced any Belgium game this WC as expected of him. In fact he was so bad that Wilmot even replaced him during the final mins of Argentina match, suggesting he doesn't trust him to bail them out.

[Polo7 3,496]

From hero to zero in 2 weeks, get a grip folks.

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.