Eden Hazard

[Inigo Montoya]

It feels like he's always semi-anonymous in European (or international) games. Anyone got any thoughts why?

Yes, he’s a cnut!

 

[VorZakone]

Hazard is overrated. Hasn't shown anything special for Belgium and rarely puts in masterclass performances in the CL whenever Chelsea is in it. He had a good game against Bayern in the Super Cup in 2013 but that's basically it as far as my memory goes.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

It feels like he's always semi-anonymous in European (or international) games. Anyone got any thoughts why?

Because often his side plays without the ball in big matches.

 

[Brwned]

Because often his side plays without the ball in big matches.

Definitely a factor but Willian has repeatedly proven in big games that you can do a lot with very little of the ball. Hazard gets more attention but I don't think it excuses so many no-shows.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

It has to be said that at least the rent boys are showing more ambition than we did

 

[Skills]

It feels like he's always semi-anonymous in European (or international) games. Anyone got any thoughts why?

I think he's been good. But I find him to be a really weird player, like with the amount of ability he has he can do more if you get what I mean. He seems to make the best decision in terms of finding the open man, but he's more than good enough to just take it on himself - and as their best player he can do more damage than the other guys.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Definitely a factor but Willian has repeatedly proven in big games that you can do a lot with very little of the ball. Hazard gets more attention but I don't think it excuses so many no-shows.

A player like Willian is going to be more suited for a counter attacking setup than someone like Hazard.

 

[Chiken138]

Hazard is no De bruyne but he is still a good player

 

[El Pasillo]

Hazard is one of the mest overrated players in the game atm.

Good player, but hardly turns up when his team needs their biggest star in Champions League.

Was non-existent against Barca tonight despite playing on his favorite position as a LW after complaining on his dislike for being a F9.

Hardly a 'world class' that everyone makes him out to be, don't think he would cut in at a club of Real Madrid's caliber.

Even Willian, Chelsea's best player by a large margin since 2018, has outperformed Hazard over these 2 legs against Barca.

 

[Righteous Steps]

The arguments against Hazard are bizarre, what exactly expect him to do when he is always in setups set to counter attack with little of the ball.

The reason he is semi anonymous is because he plays for Chelsea as opposed to Barcelona or Madrid. Saying that we seem to have different standards of semi anonymous, as even today Willian was busy but it's Hazard who created the main chance for Alonso. He did the best he could do, he is Chelseas Messi but he doesn't get the luxury of playing in an expansive setup, and no he isn't on Messi's level, but at a club like Madrid where inverse of his situation at Chelsea he would do less, which would allow him to be more productive.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Hazard is one of the mest overrated players in the game atm.

Good player, but hardly turns up when his team needs their biggest star in Champions League.

Was non-existent against Barca tonight despite playing on his favorite position as a LW after complaining on his dislike for being a F9.

Hardly a 'world class' that everyone makes him out to be, don't think he would cut in at a club of Real Madrid's caliber.

Even Willian, Chelsea's best player by a large margin since 2018, has outperformed Hazard over these 2 legs against Barca.

He has been the best player for two PL title winning sides and both season's they were heavily reliant on him creating.

 

[El Pasillo]

The arguments against Hazard are bizarre, what exactly expect him to do when he is always in setups set to counter attack with little of the ball.

If you're good enough, then it won't really be a hindrance.

Didn't stop Griezmann to carry Atlético Madrid to final & semi-final in the two last seasons and they've the same approach as Chelsea.

That's what Hazard is expected to do for Chelsea and he's failed miserably at this task.

He has been the best player for two PL title winning sides and both season's they were heavily reliant on him creating.

And? Hazard has been incredibly underwhelming at the biggest stage in club football way too often.

Let's be real here; this guy is nothing more than a flat-track bully who goes missing when it matters à la Özil.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

His CL performances have been abject overall.

He started the game brightly, but he faded.

I don't think he has the mentality to be the best.

 

[ti vu]

What I see is he is a dedicated attacker. His best is when he is allowed freedom and not burdened to do defensive. However, his flaw is that he is not really a forward in a sense that you can give him the ball and he doesn't score enough individually after work his way to unlock defense. Even as false 9 it doesn't help. He likes to work with a forward. So he is not really suited for a counter attack team. As it's hard to defend against top attacking team while leaving 2 men up fronts. Even knowing this, benching Hazard is not an good idea as it could upset him and affected his mood for other games.

It clearly shows in games where Chelsea has to play counter attack even under Mourinho or Conte. Player with balance between defensive quality and attacking like Willian shined more despite overall Hazard is better player. Willian is just suited for this type of game. There are more less quality opponents than the top clubs, so overall Hazard can showcase his quality plenty of time. However, this doesn't mean he is Ozil like in term of mentality. Ozil is just adding cutting edge. You can't build a team around him as main man. With Hazard you can, but as I explained with Hazard as a nucleus of a team playing on front foot.

So the question always why Hazard joined Chelsea in the first place, and stay for this long.

Edit: The two leg of this CL tie against Barcelona showed 2 contrast approach. First one: played solely on counter with Hazard as false no 9. He was very quiet. Second one: try to play more expansive having Giroud as his partner, which sacrifice the a workhorse thus bringing the team higher up the pitch trying to compete for possession. Was much easier for Barcelona to played around them. Hazard overall was better this game than last. Still since Barcelona is a better expansive team, and Hazard himself can't compare to Messi, the winner is clear.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Chelsea just don't take attacking seriously. They have him but no one who can make a run in behind the defence.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

If you're good enough, then it won't really be a hindrance.

Didn't stop Griezmann to carry Atlético Madrid to final & semi-final in the two last seasons and they've the same approach as Chelsea.

That's what Hazard is expected to do for Chelsea and he's failed miserably at this task.

Hyperbole. Atletico's achievements are largely a team effort. No one has been carrying them except possibly Simeone. Also, this Chelsea team simply isn't as good as Atletico were. They definitely have worse midfielders and a worse defence.

I think Hazard is below the absolute elite (Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo) but this current Chelsea team does not have a proper goalscorer in their ranks. Hazard is a playmaker and would look a lot better in a more attacking team and at least surrounded by a real goal scorer or two. He does let himself down at times and isn't clinical enough but some of it has to do with the team as well.

 

[Sanche7]

Season Team Tournament Apps Mins Goals Assists
2017/2018 Chelsea UCL 7(1) 611 3 3
2017/2018 Chelsea EPL 22(4) 1868 11 3

2016/2017 Chelsea EPL 36 3007 16 5

2015/2016 Chelsea UCL 6(2) 526 - 1
2015/2016 Chelsea EPL 25(6) 2192 4 3

2014/2015 Chelsea UCL 7 654 3 2
2014/2015 Chelsea EPL 38 3379 14 9

2013/2014 Chelsea UCL 8(1) 682 2 -
2013/2014 Chelsea EPL 32(3) 2898 14 7

2012/2013 Chelsea UEL 5(2) 449 1 1
2012/2013 Chelsea UCL 4(2) 457 - 2

For a player with his skillet, his productivity is poor.
When the likes of Messi and Ronaldo score 50 goals every year, he has failed to crack 20 goals with his best being 16!
And he even has a season with 4 goals in the entire season
In the UCL, the maximum goals he's ever scored is 3!

Yeah he is a magical player, so easy on the eye, but none of that matters if you can't produce numbers, which Eden has so far failed to do

 

[Keeps It tidy]

@Sanche7 He is not Messi or Cristiano because no one is. And he has always been a Ribery type wide playmaker so expecting huge goal totals from him is silly.

 

[Righteous Steps]

I think he's been good. But I find him to be a really weird player, like with the amount of ability he has he can do more if you get what I mean. He seems to make the best decision in terms of finding the open man, but he's more than good enough to just take it on himself - and as their best player he can do more damage than the other guys.

Hyperbole. Atletico's achievements are largely a team effort. No one has been carrying them except possibly Simeone. Also, this Chelsea team simply isn't as good as Atletico were. They definitely have worse midfielders and a worse defence.

I think Hazard is below the absolute elite (Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo) but this current Chelsea team does not have a proper goalscorer in their ranks. Hazard is a playmaker and would look a lot better in a more attacking team and at least surrounded by a real goal scorer or two. He does let himself down at times and isn't clinical enough but some of it has to do with the team as well.

He isn't even below Neymar tbh, put Neymar at Chelsea and they wouldn't go past Barcelona and they would probably win as much as they have with Hazard.

Neymar isn't a miracle worker he plays for a far better attacking team than Chelsea in PSG and couldn't drag them over the line when push came to shove, in fact his performance was derided in some places.

 

[Righteous Steps]

@Sanche7 He is not Messi or Cristiano because no one is. And he has always been a Ribery type wide playmaker so expecting huge goal totals from him is silly.

And he doesn't need to be to be great, currently he is better than Ronaldo imo, one just happens to play with Kroos Modric Marcelo Isco behind him as opposed to Kante Willian Drinkwater.

Ronaldos all round game is nowhere near the level of Hazards currently.

For Hazards sake he needs to make the move to Madrid, then people will truly get the type of player he is..

 

[DWelbz19]

He definitely is below Neymar.

Still, the biggest flaw Hazard has is determination/drive. He routinely goes through patches of form where he’s ridiculously quiet in terms of outlet and general threat because he’s not come out of second gear. Chelsea having such poverty in creativity can only justify so much.

 

[giorno]

Chelsea just don't take attacking seriously. They have him but no one who can make a run in behind the defence.

He's part of the problem though. He himself makes few runs behind the defence and often will ignore a good run in favour of overdribbling. He's a great player but incredibly overrated at the same time

And about chelsea's playing style, weird that people claim chelsea's playing style doesn't get the best of him and then follow that by saying how amazing he's been in two title winning campaigns for them...

Imho, chelsea's playstyle absolutely gets the best from him and he wouldn't look as good on a team like city. He is, first and foremost, a dribbler. He's a world class dribbler with great passing accuracy, but good-player-average vision and decision making, poor movement off the ball, poor shooting, and little goalscoring instincts.

 

[arthurka]

Never seen what he is really good at. . Quick and skilled but never has a great season throughout .. Would take Willian over him any day of the week .

 

[Righteous Steps]

He definitely is below Neymar.

Still, the biggest flaw Hazard has is determination/drive. He routinely goes through patches of form where he’s ridiculously quiet in terms of outlet and general threat because he’s not come out of second gear. Chelsea having such poverty in creativity can only justify so much (and to be fair it does justify a lot).

He isn't we've seen the best Neymar could do with Mbappe Cavani and Veratti besides him.

Neymar has had the fortune with playing with PSG and Barca two of the best teams in Europe in terms of attacking and domination, Hazard hasn't.

It can justify a lot even in Chelseas league winning titles his contribution to them can't be simply summed up with goals and assists, it's funny because people always give the likes of Isco and iniesta the benefit of the doubt when talking about goal contribution, with Hazard being better than both of them in that field, then why can't Hazard too get that doubt playing in the equivalent of Atletico Madrid teams where his job is way more nuanced than being the player on the end of things like say Griezmann is.

 

[Righteous Steps]

He's part of the problem though. He himself makes few runs behind the defence and often will ignore a good run in favour of overdribbling. He's a great player but incredibly overrated at the same time

And about chelsea's playing style, weird that people claim chelsea's playing style doesn't get the best of him and then follow that by saying how amazing he's been in two title winning campaigns for them...

Imho, chelsea's playstyle absolutely gets the best from him and he wouldn't look as good on a team like city. He is, first and foremost, a dribbler. He's a world class dribbler with great passing accuracy, but good-player-average vision and decision making, poor movement off the ball, poor shooting, and little goalscoring instincts.

Wrong he is a great passer and even in bad seasons his goal scoring contribution are still very good. In Madrid or Barcelonas teams he would be allowed to be the facilitator, that means more assists more key passes and even more goals because of he quality of attacking players around him, you can't just double mark Hazard when Ronaldo Isco and Modric around him.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He isn't even below Neymar tbh, put Neymar at Chelsea and they wouldn't go past Barcelona and they would probably win as much as they have with Hazard.

Neymar isn't a miracle worker he plays for a far better attacking team than Chelsea in PSG and couldn't drag them over the line when push came to shove, in fact his performance was derided in some places.

Disagree with that. Neymar is definitely better than Hazard IMO.

 

[Fortitude]

Hazard has no performances outside the PL that back the hype so many of you give him due to performances in it. The PL is not the proving ground given it is vastly inferior now, as seen in the CL on a seasonal basis.

He does nothing at international level, either, so even if you take the CL out of the equation, what he has in the bank is doing well in a league which isn't very good in the first place.

I've yet to see him make the step up that has him regarded as world class - how can you ever be that when you do nothing when faced with literal world class opposition?

It remains to be seen if this City team are world class, either, they'll be proven as such by way of what they do in the remainder of the CL campaign, not what they've done in the domestic league.

 

[roonster09]

He is great player but yesterday Willian was much better.

I don't remember a memorable performance from him in champions league. For a player of his quality, that's just poor.

 

[Righteous Steps]

He had a performance as good as it can get against Atletico..

 

[Righteous Steps]

And when you don't play for a team that does anything of note in the Champions League how many memorable champions league performances can you put in? Common sense.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Disagree with that. Neymar is definitely better than Hazard IMO.

Would like to see what he does with PSG then, esepcially if Hazard goes to Madrid in the summer, the general narrative is that not until you go to those two big Spanish clubs do you get the plaudits you deserve.

 

[Fortitude]

He had a performance as good as it can get against Atletico..

When they were going through their slump?

And when you don't play for a team that does anything of note in the Champions League how many memorable champions league performances can you put in? Common sense.

Would stand to reason if other players in his team weren't standing out for sterling performances.

 

[roonster09]

And when you don't play for a team that does anything of note in the Champions League how many memorable champions league performances can you put in? Common sense.

So Hazard can put memorable performance only if Chelesa does something in CL? Yeah common sense.

Lewandowski put one of the best performance against Madrid when he was playing for Dortmund and till then Dortmund didn't do anything in CL, even getting knocked out in group stages.

 

[Righteous Steps]

So Hazard can put memorable performance only if Chelesa does something in CL? Yeah common sense.

Lewandowski put one of the best performance against Madrid when he was playing for Dortmund and till then Dortmund didn't do anything in CL, even getting knocked out in group stages.

Yes it helps...

And Context mate, what team was Lewandowski playing for and who was his manager?

Is that the same years they went to CL final?

 

[BlueViper]

Some laughable comments from people that only watch Hazard play every so often. He's proven time and time again he's a big game player in the PL.

Imho, chelsea's playstyle absolutely gets the best from him and he wouldn't look as good on a team like city. He is, first and foremost, a dribbler. He's a world class dribbler with great passing accuracy, but good-player-average vision and decision making, poor movement off the ball, poor shooting, and little goalscoring instincts.

Bang on the money about goalscoring instincts, he'll probably pass it to a free man when faced with an open goal. But disagree a lot about all the others. His shooting is superb when he does take it on. And I guarantee that if he couldn't dribble he would have made a career from his passing and vision. It's a very underrated part of his game just because his dribbling overshadows it. More often than not he finds the right pass and makes it stick. He really needs another version of himself to shine in our team, one to make the play the other to receive it. The other players can't really be trusted with either role...Willian is the exception right now but only because he's going through the best form of his Chelsea career while the rest of the team has had a slump. Madness to compare him to Hazard on most other days.

 

[roonster09]

Yes it helps...

And Context mate, what team was Lewandowski playing for and who was his manager?

Is that the same years they went to CL final?

Dortmund. They went to CL finals because he played amazing game against Madrid. That's what I'm saying, putting in memorable performance.

 

[Righteous Steps]

When they were going through their slump?
Would stand to reason if other players in his team weren't standing out for sterling performances.

Willian had one good performance against Barca last week wouldn't exactly call it memorable though.

And that same Atletico with the best defensive record in Europe at that time, whether they were on a wane is irrelevant to them still being probably the hardest team to break down and most tactically drilled in Europe. Give Hazard enough of the ball and he will make things happen, heck he even done it yesterday he made one should of been assist for Alonso and as many key passes as anyone on the pitch not named Messi.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Dortmund. They went to CL finals because he played amazing game against Madrid. That's what I'm saying, putting in memorable performance.

Yes under Klopp one of the best attacking managers in the world, and a Dortmund team who were in their prime and a fine attacking outfit themselves, that's sort of he point Hazard hasn't played for Klopp or Guardiola, and he hasn't played for teams as expansive and as well oiled as an attacking collective as that same Dortmund team Lewandowski played for.

 

[roonster09]

Some laughable comments from people that only watch Hazard play every so often. He's proven time and time again he's a big game player in the PL.
.

Anyone said he isn't a big game player in PL? People are questioning his CL performance which is correct as Hazard is superb player and his performance in CL isn't as good as it should be.

 

[Cee90]

Surely nobody can doubt that Hazard is a quality player, bordering on a world class talent?

I was gutted when we missed out on him to Chelsea.

He has performed well for Chelsea in the league and Champions League, it's not easy playing against Barcelona obviously.

If we had him against Sevilla, I bet he would of put in a better performance than the majority of our players the other night.