Eden Hazard | "It's time to enjoy life drinking beers"

The revisionism is ridiculous. He has had a bad season, but that does not mean he wasn't the best winger in the Premier League, and, arguably, the best player in the league.

Why are people saying he is not a leader either? His stats against top opposition show that he is a leader on the pitch. The guy never hid against the top opposition in the Premier League

Stats against the top teams in the Premier League
Man City - 4 goals & 7 assists (14 games)
Manutd - 5 goals & 5 assists (14 games)
Tottenham - 5 goals & 3 assists (14 games)
Liverpool - 6 goals & 2 assists (14 games)
Arsenal - 5 goals & 4 assists (14 games)
 
Massive Spanner said:
Jesus the revisionism in here is crazy. I think I spent the majority of Hazard's time in the PL wishing we'd paid that agent fee for him and being jealous of Chelsea for having him. He was ridiculously good and to try claim otherwise because of his issues at Real is daft.

For me the only other two players who I'd have put on his level overall in the last six years are Aguero and Silva.
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And few will disagree, including me, but that doesn't really change the fact that stability has always been his biggest issue. He would have one insane season followed by a poor one, perform again and then dip, it's hardly a coincidence when it happens again and again. Plenty of players have a bit of an issue with not maintaining fitness during holidays, returning to pre-season far too heavy. There's Rooney, Tevez and Higuain to mention the obvious ones, but Hazard is easy to include as well. I don't think he has the mentality for it, the determination required to consistently perform at the level he has the potential to be at.

I have no doubt that he'll be mint next season, just as I have no doubt that the season after that will be a let down.
 
Untd55 said:
Stats against the top teams in the Premier League
Man City - 4 goals & 7 assists (14 games)
Manutd - 5 goals & 5 assists (14 games)
Tottenham - 5 goals & 3 assists (14 games)
Liverpool - 6 goals & 2 assists (14 games)
Arsenal - 5 goals & 4 assists (14 games)
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Assists can be misleading though.

For example in the 2-0 vs Man City Hazard gets two assits, first was a missplaced pass that went to Kante, second was a corner.

Also where did you get those stats from? Because its inaccurate figures!
 
duffer said:
He did that many, many times at Chelsea, including big games.

As for his Madrid from, I've not seen hardly any of it but the numbers are shite. Perhaps we sold at the right time.

Messi and Ronaldo comparisons are totally unfair, if they are the benchmark then every other player in the world is shit.
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Benchmarking against Ronaldo and Messi is totally unfair.

But Hazard has been terrible for a £100m signing.

I agree with you that Chelsea basically sold him at the perfect time because it’s probably downhill for him from here.

The revisionism in this thread is silly though, Hazard is one of the best players to grace English football.

I would have killed for him at United.
 
Irrational. said:
It wasn't too long ago he was being mentioned in the same breath as them when he was at Chelsea.

Maybe Neymar would be a good comparison.

You definitely sold at the right time! And got a player with a higher ceiling in Pulisic. Great business by Roman all round.
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Hazard is one of the best players in Chelsea history, if Pulisic gets there he will be a massive success.

Let's not forget how good Hazard was, you can count on one hand the players that can do this:



Re: enjoying himself, he is the spiritual successor to Ronaldinho, not Messi and Ronaldo that way. And that's great I think. Hazard makes the game a joy to watch and it's nice to have one player not obsessed by stats.

Massive Spanner said:
Jesus the revisionism in here is crazy. I think I spent the majority of Hazard's time in the PL wishing we'd paid that agent fee for him and being jealous of Chelsea for having him. He was ridiculously good and to try claim otherwise because of his issues at Real is daft.

For me the only other two players who I'd have put on his level overall in the last six years are Aguero and Silva.
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Next up will be how Kaka, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko were overrated because they had a bad move/declined in their late 20s.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Hazard is one of the best players in Chelsea history, if Pulisic gets there he will be a massive success.

Let's not forget how good Hazard was, you can count on one hand the players that can do this:



Re: enjoying himself, he is the spiritual successor to Ronaldinho, not Messi and Ronaldo that way. And that's great I think. Hazard makes the game a joy to watch and it's nice to have one player not obsessed by stats.



Next up will be how Kaka, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko were overrated because they had a bad move/declined in their late 20s.
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Nobody is saying that he wasn't good. It's just that he had phases in his career where he'd be god like for 2 months then be average for the next 3 months and again back again to being god like for the last 2 months of the season. How many seasons did he have where he was consistently amazing through the whole season? 2? maybe 3? Hazard's peak is probably over
 
GifLord said:
But he did go missing?
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Like any other top player, he'd struggle if the unit was dysfunctional but given the platform (again something every player needs), he was always one that I felt wanted the ball, took responsibility to run the play etc i.e was not passive. One of those players I always hated us coming up against.
 
Admittedly not one of his best outings to say leniently, but wasn't too surprised. I've watched him a few times he's been on the pitch for Real(because I absolutely love him and will forever) and he's looked totally out of sync with the rest of the team everytime. I don't know what's happened behind the scenes at Madrid where, aside their entitled pricks of a fanbase, it looks like a very tough dressing room to be in for a big money move newcomer. His game has totally changed, he hardly even tries his trademark solo runs once in a while. He seems wary of trying things and loosing the ball, keeps passing it back to Kroos, Marcelo or Benzema who themselves will proceed to try something and loose the ball anyways and not be too bothered about it. Its either he's been told to pipe down a bit or he's failed to settle in the team.

Hazard typically needs to feel loved and looked up to as the main man to perform( like it or not, it is what it is) but I doubt he's getting that at Madrid (which is understandable of course as every one of them is also a superstar in their own rights, seen and done it all)
I really hope he gets it together as I want him to succeed at Madrid. One thing is certain though, we do know how to sell them :D
 
GifLord said:
Nobody is saying that he wasn't good. It's just that he had phases in his career where he'd be god like for 2 months then be average for the next 3 months and again back again to being god like for the last 2 months of the season. How many seasons did he have where he was consistently amazing through the whole season? 2? maybe 3? Hazard's peak is probably over
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How many players are "amazing" throughout an entire season? Or don't have runs of average form here and there in a long career at the top level? RvP stopped scoring for a decent stretch in his brilliant season for us. Is that really held against him. And going by that, is it all focused on stats so someone like Gareth Bale who offers sweet feck all outside of end product, never gets called out for dips here and there? What about Giggs and his inconsistencies?

The point is that it seems the only truly consistent players are the goalscorers becuase you have someone serving it up for on a platter. So Zlatan and Lewandowski tearing up a one team league is really consistent but players who held run the play like Hazard and Modric are often criticized for being inconstant. Because G plus A of courses.
 
Mount's Goatieson said:
Admittedly not one of his best outings to say leniently, but wasn't too surprised. I've watched him a few times he's been on the pitch for Real(because I absolutely love him and will forever) and he's looked totally out of sync with the rest of the team everytime. I don't know what's happened behind the scenes at Madrid where, aside their entitled pricks of a fanbase, it looks like a very tough dressing room to be in for a big money move newcomer. His game has totally changed, he hardly even tries his trademark solo runs once in a while. He seems wary of trying things and loosing the ball, keeps passing it back to Kroos, Marcelo or Benzema who themselves will proceed to try something and loose the ball anyways and not be too bothered about it. Its either he's been told to pipe down a bit or he's failed to settle in the team.

Hazard typically needs to feel loved and looked up to as the main man to perform( like it or not, it is what it is) but I doubt he's getting that at Madrid (which is understandable of course as every one of them is also a superstar in their own rights, seen and done it all)
I really hope he gets it together as I want him to succeed at Madrid. One thing is certain though, we do know how to sell them :D
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I have been insanely jealous of Chelsea’s sales record for years now. The fees you got for De Bruyne, Lukaku, Salah and Ake were phenomenal in hindsight.
 
GifLord said:
Nobody is saying that he wasn't good. It's just that he had phases in his career where he'd be god like for 2 months then be average for the next 3 months and again back again to being god like for the last 2 months of the season. How many seasons did he have where he was consistently amazing through the whole season? 2? maybe 3? Hazard's peak is probably over
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Of his Chelsea seasons, he was there 7 years and made PFA Team of the Year 4 times and didn't even make it in arguably his best season last season. So that's 5 out of 7, one very bad season (but everyone at Chelsea was). The other one was ok. He won Ligue 1 player of the season twice before he arrived. So over a decade, he has been consistently excellent, this is new, partly caused by having an injury break he's never had.

On his European goal record, he scored 2 goals in the Europa League last season but won player of the tournament. He scored 2 goals in the World Cup, could have won Golden Ball. He's not a natural goalscorer but doesn't mean he doesn't often decide games.
 
I think the biggest problem - his form aside - is just how completely different of a player he is to what he replaced. In a vacuum (leaving aside it was literally Cristiano Ronaldo); Madrid replaced a goalscorer with a player who (despite frequently getting double figures in G/A) was an ‘aesthetic’ player first and foremost.

It would be like if we, say, replaced Bruno right now with Isco. Or if Man City replaced Aguero with Firmino.

Ronaldo averages 6+ shots a game. In his last 3 seasons at Chelsea, Hazard was averaging about 2.2-ish.

It took basically Benzema’s best individual season and a lot of Ramos headers and penalties to score enough goals to get Madrid over the line this season.
 
Wumminator said:
I have been insanely jealous of Chelsea’s sales record for years now. The fees you got for De Bruyne, Lukaku, Salah and Ake were phenomenal in hindsight.
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How? All these players are worth now much more than when they were sold by Chelsea.

I know there's a possibility you are sarcastic but just in case.
 
GDaly95 said:
That is so false
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You think people perform best when they are not having fun? In any job in the world, best results are seen if the person enjoys what they are doing. Of course there is a fine line in having fun and going overboard, but as long as its not overboard, I feel my statement is true.
 
Wumminator said:
I have been insanely jealous of Chelsea’s sales record for years now. The fees you got for De Bruyne, Lukaku, Salah and Ake were phenomenal in hindsight.
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It really is isn't it, which makes it quiet disappointing the fees we got for Oscar, Mata, Matic, Ramirez, Costa, Morata, David Luis etc. With all they have achieved for the buying clubs makes me pretty livid we sold them.
 
Sigma said:
You think people perform best when they are not having fun? In any job in the world, best results are seen if the person enjoys what they are doing. Of course there is a fine line in having fun and going overboard, but as long as its not overboard, I feel my statement is true.
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Jose's Inter team for example were not just going out and having fun when they won the Champions League. They were going out and abiding by a rigid regimented system that involved lots of running and positional discipline.

In 08 when we beat Barca in that CL final we were doing the same. Largely defended for our lives. You could argue that in the two finals we lost to them we went to play the best football we could and to attack, that would logically be more 'fun' but it was less likely to end in success and it didn't.

Game of opinions anyway!
 
There's always been something off about him, obviously a very good player but there's always been that question mark which has stopped him being world class. He had that awful season in 15-16? and he's had another again.
 
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Mane
- Kane
- Sanchez

Probably forgetting afew more. He’s always been a good player with supreme talent but a poor mentality. The moment he said he wasn’t interested in competing for goals was when you could just tell his mentality was far from elite. I think he’s overrated primarily because he’s one of the best dribblers of his generation and those players always tent to get higher praise than more effective peers.
 
Mark_Barca said:
:lol::lol::lol:

Him winning that award was an absolute farce.
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It was ridiculous really, all he did was just show up in the final against Arsenal after not starting in most of the previous games. Most Chelsea fans believed Giroud, RLC and CHO deserved it more than him.
 
Bad first season, but with hazard you’re never really sure, he might step up and be magnificent next season. The part I’ve always wondered about before his move to Madrid was if his mentality could handle that pressure - he’s never really seemed to be a player too fussed about goals/assist numbers and he absolutely will get judged over there for the numbers. Especially if they stop winning or competing in the UCL. Fans over there went through phases of booing Ronaldo.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Mane
- Kane
- Sanchez

Probably forgetting afew more. He’s always been a good player with supreme talent but a poor mentality. The moment he said he wasn’t interested in competing for goals was when you could just tell his mentality was far from elite. I think he’s overrated primarily because he’s one of the best dribblers of his generation and those players always tent to get higher praise than more effective peers.
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I'd add a few more to your list
Payet
Zaha
Coutinho
Valencia
Son
Vardy
Nathan Redmond
Courtois
De Gea
Grandma Agnes
Mitrovic
Lingard

Probably forgetting a few but will get back to you after a couCoue of snifes.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Mane
- Kane
- Sanchez

Probably forgetting afew more. He’s always been a good player with supreme talent but a poor mentality. The moment he said he wasn’t interested in competing for goals was when you could just tell his mentality was far from elite. I think he’s overrated primarily because he’s one of the best dribblers of his generation and those players always tent to get higher praise than more effective peers.
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You’re kidding me right? Firstly you compare wingers with strikers and #10s. Then the likes of Sanchez and Mane have had better decade than Hazard? Mane has only been relevant these past 2 maybe 3 years? Sanchez the same only with his Arsenal years. He didn’t do great At Barca. And Hazard has clearly better stats than Yaya. So what grounds has Yaya had a better decade than Hazard?
The only wingers on that list you can compare him to are Salah, Mane and Sanchez and he has had a better decade than all of them in terms of stats and trophies won.
 
My partner is Belgian so I spend a lot of time over there. Through hundreds of football chats, it's commonly agreed that Hazard is a talented player, but doesn't always deliver it, whereas someone like Kevin De Bruyne is generally regarded as the best player and often performs when needed. Hell, Dries Mertens is often thought of in a better light than Hazard since he always seems to be up for it on the national stage. Quite an underrated player outside of Belgium. Maybe doesn't have the stats of Hazard, but there's more of a "buzz" when he's on the pitch as it feels like something can happen.

When he's on form, he's fantastic. Just doesn't quite hit those heights regularly enough to be a true great. That's the way it sometimes goes with attacking players though and sometimes they can play badly for 89 minutes but get the vital game-winning goal in the 90th. That's their nature, to drift in and out, as frustrating as it can be.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Mane
- Kane
- Sanchez

Probably forgetting afew more. He’s always been a good player with supreme talent but a poor mentality. The moment he said he wasn’t interested in competing for goals was when you could just tell his mentality was far from elite. I think he’s overrated primarily because he’s one of the best dribblers of his generation and those players always tent to get higher praise than more effective peers.
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All of these players are debatable in favour of Hazard except for Suarez and even then he wasn't in the league for long.

The City and Liverpool players all played in attacking teams with attacking managers. Hazard played under Mourinho and Conte for a large part of his time at Chelsea and had to carry their attack in a way the others never had to. Even in his last season with Sarri, it was a one man band in attack and was arguably the best attacker in the league. He has two league titles to his name which is more than most attackers on this list and he's been in the PFA team of the year four times, the joint most along with Kane.

Revisionism on Hazard has always been a bit weird to me. Barcelona and Real Madrid only go for the very best players in the PL as seen with Ronaldo, Bale, Suarez, Modric, Fabregas and now Hazard. His Madrid form has nowt to do with what he accomplished at Chelsea.

He's definitely one of the best players we've ever seen in the PL without question.
 
GDaly95 said:
Jose's Inter team for example were not just going out and having fun when they won the Champions League. They were going out and abiding by a rigid regimented system that involved lots of running and positional discipline.

In 08 when we beat Barca in that CL final we were doing the same. Largely defended for our lives. You could argue that in the two finals we lost to them we went to play the best football we could and to attack, that would logically be more 'fun' but it was less likely to end in success and it didn't.

Game of opinions anyway!
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But thats not to say they weren't enjoying doing that? I'm sure they were mature enough to know what to do (i.e. do what you said), and it gave them enjoyment to be successful. People enjoy different things. The main thing is you enjoy what you do, and it can reap results, my opinion anyway. Also, nobody will always be happy 100% with their job, there will be hard days. But if you overall are in a happy mental state, I think it does wonders for a football team.

In my opinion, the jump from good to great in sport is all about the mind and motivation plays a large part in that.
 
Its hard to judge individual performances, because is not clear to me what Real Madrid want to do in attack. I can't see the collective plan, appart from Rodrygo with instructions to cross balls to Benzema.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Kane
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With Salah, De Bruyne and Kane there is still the potential for them to do more and I'd remove Sanchez and Mane but I think it is very arguable that these players have been better than Hazard in the PL. You could make a case for them all.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He’s a good player but I’d argue he’s certainly below in the last decade:
- Aguero
- Silva
- Suarez
- Yaya
- De Bruyne
- Salah
- Mane
- Kane
- Sanchez

Probably forgetting afew more. He’s always been a good player with supreme talent but a poor mentality. The moment he said he wasn’t interested in competing for goals was when you could just tell his mentality was far from elite. I think he’s overrated primarily because he’s one of the best dribblers of his generation and those players always tent to get higher praise than more effective peers.
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Player of the Season - only Suarez and Salah on that list can match that
4 times on Team of the Year - only matched by Kane
Twice in FifPro World XI - only Suarez has ever been on it of that list
Silver Ball in the World Cup - nobody can match that
Twice on UEFA Team of the Year - only De Bruyne can match that, Mane only other player that made it

Bolded part - or maybe because dribbling is a massive advantage at the highest level, creates space for others and takes players out of the game and beats the press. Just because he's not tapping in 5 more cutbacks a season like Sterling doesn't stop him from being an exceptional player.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Player of the Season - only Suarez and Salah on that list can match that
4 times on Team of the Year - only matched by Kane
Twice in FifPro World XI - only Suarez has ever been on it of that list
Silver Ball in the World Cup - nobody can match that
Twice on UEFA Team of the Year - only De Bruyne can match that, Mane only other player that made it

Bolded part - or maybe because dribbling is a massive advantage at the highest level, creates space for others and takes players out of the game and beats the press. Just because he's not tapping in 5 more cutbacks a season like Sterling doesn't stop him from being an exceptional player.
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I just think all those players have a better mentality than Hazard. They all produced superior numbers for their teams which Hazard should have done with his talent. I just think he’s always been a good but overrated player.
 
SilentWitness said:
With Salah, De Bruyne and Kane there is still the potential for them to do more and I'd remove Sanchez and Mane but I think it is very arguable that these players have been better than Hazard in the PL. You could make a case for them all.
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The players I’ve mentioned are some of the best around so I’m not sure why people are getting a offended. To me Hazard never really made full use of his ability. He could have been as good as Robben etc but was always a class below because he wasn’t mentally strong enough and didn’t have enough hunger for it. All those other players have fulfilled their maximum potential relative to their abilities.
 
El Jefe said:
All of these players are debatable in favour of Hazard except for Suarez and even then he wasn't in the league for long.

The City and Liverpool players all played in attacking teams with attacking managers. Hazard played under Mourinho and Conte for a large part of his time at Chelsea and had to carry their attack in a way the others never had to. Even in his last season with Sarri, it was a one man band in attack and was arguably the best attacker in the league. He has two league titles to his name which is more than most attackers on this list and he's been in the PFA team of the year four times, the joint most along with Kane.

Revisionism on Hazard has always been a bit weird to me. Barcelona and Real Madrid only go for the very best players in the PL as seen with Ronaldo, Bale, Suarez, Modric, Fabregas and now Hazard. His Madrid form has nowt to do with what he accomplished at Chelsea.

He's definitely one of the best players we've ever seen in the PL without question.
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I’m not saying it’s not debatable (it is), in fact I’m going to assume it isn’t popular either but I think Hazard falls short mentally of the top players this league has seen. His best attribute is dribbling and I would put that below many of the players on that list because he wasn’t a great goal scorer and didn’t get enough assists relative to his talent.
 
RDCR07 said:
You’re kidding me right? Firstly you compare wingers with strikers and #10s. Then the likes of Sanchez and Mane have had better decade than Hazard? Mane has only been relevant these past 2 maybe 3 years? Sanchez the same only with his Arsenal years. He didn’t do great At Barca. And Hazard has clearly better stats than Yaya. So what grounds has Yaya had a better decade than Hazard?
The only wingers on that list you can compare him to are Salah, Mane and Sanchez and he has had a better decade than all of them in terms of stats and trophies won.
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I am not saying those players were better the whole decade but each and every one of them have had a higher peak and shown a higher level for me which is usually because they have mentally pulled their teams to victory in both the league and Champions league. The position is irrelevant, I’m arguing on status and impact regardless of position and Hazard again falls down on that in comparison to others.
 
Mount's Goatieson said:
I'd add a few more to your list
Payet
Zaha
Coutinho
Valencia
Son
Vardy
Nathan Redmond
Courtois
De Gea
Grandma Agnes
Mitrovic
Lingard

Probably forgetting a few but will get back to you after a couCoue of snifes.
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Not shocked to see a Chelsea fan rush in to defend. Pointless post.
 
Bebestation said:
I was talking about this with another fan on this forum & we agreed with something like this. Sometimes players in the PL can be adapted to be the main attacking threat of the whole team rather than split it across the team equally and balanced with tactics.

For example, I saw this with Coutinho at Liverpool who was scoring long shots for fun in the PL especially pre klopp dominance. Coutinho being the main man was one of Liverpool's main tactics back then. He moved to play at Barcelona later and then was made to adapt to just be a single part of a team following tactics that didnt individualise him and it showed. I saw this with Hazard at Chelsea aswell, being individualised to his benefit only to possibly find it hard just to be one part of 11 equally. Theres quite some players I can see with this.
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That is always something to look for when judging how a player will adapt coming from a lower club. Zaha for example at Palace, has, to borrow a basketball phrase, a massively high usage rate, how does his game work when not given the ball to that extent, when he has produce in more limited touches. Some players games are ideal to that transition, the better players around them allow other parts of their game to breathe. Easiest way to do that is in having excellent movement and willingness to make the runs off the ball, something Hazard has rarely had to do.

Grealish is another one with that question over him, what is his value when seeing less of the ball?
 
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