He was truly a big game player, when things got tough in the CL you could always rely on him to show up and make a difference. Deserved praise.
Eden Hazard | "It's time to enjoy life drinking beers"
- Thread starter Samid
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Who Hazard? He was mainly a flop in the CL. I can't recall any CL in his career where he was influential. He had like 9 goals total in the CL half from penalties
NB: Oh I fell for that WUM
He's won more in Europe than your club you cheeky git!
Are you trying to prove to me that he was a big game player? I already said that. His WC record speaks for itself, too. No one could ever doubt his impact.
He literally dragged us through the business end of two title wins.
Was a top player for Chelsea. Went downhill after that. Still remember the game Ander Herrera man marked him. One of the best tactical games that.
He has the same philosophy as me. I just cut out the part about being an athlete and went straight to the beer drinking part.
I know everything needs to be revised and rewritten for hot takes, but come on, he absolutely, 100%, undebatably more than "fulfilled" his potential. He very possibly was the third best player in the world for most of the 2010s, and would have been the undisputable best several seasons if not for the two monsters. It was an awful signing for Madrid, but he already had nothing to prove by then, and Madrid took it in stride as well, so no harm done 
I know everything needs to be revised and rewritten for hot takes, but come on, he absolutely, 100%, undebatably more than "fulfilled" his potential. He very possibly was the third best player in the world for most of the 2010s, and would have been the undisputable best several seasons if not for the two monsters. It was an awful signing for Madrid, but he already had nothing to prove by then, and Madrid took it in stride as well, so no harm done
He never made top 5 in Balon dor in any season. No need for revision. If we remove Messi and Ronaldo, he wont make top 5 in any year
And also had seasons where he didn’t fancy turning up. He was always disappointing in the champions league games too and big cup games. I still think his quote about not wanting to score the amount Messi and Ronaldo did was very telling. Lacked the real elite mentality. Not sure how anyone can argue any different after what’s happened at Madrid, but I get Chelsea fans would be biased/emotive on him.
So Jorginho was the 3rd best player in the world in 2021? Or perhaps the Balloon door isn't such an infallible metric of player quality?
This is a common misconception based on how disastrous our 15/16 title defense was - what it ignores is that Hazard had a significant hip injury that he played through because Mourinho had no other ideas and had lost the locker room completely due to his antics with the medical staff.
There's no other season where he failed to perform - and in the sole example I think it's entirely fair to put the onus on Mourinho. Chelsea as a club are still paying the price for his disastrous second spell and it's not like he's done anything subsequently to bolster his own case.
Still remember that awful Phil Jones tackle on him that won the penalty and the game for Chelsea in the cup final. Just...urghhh! 
There was probably an agenda at work against him. It's the only logical explanation why "the third best player in the world for most of the 2010s" didn't get the votes.
Rashford Hojlund Hazard
Make it happen Woody!
Oh wait...
Make it happen Woody!
Oh wait...
Still remember that awful Phil Jones tackle on him that won the penalty and the game for Chelsea in the cup final. Just...urghhh!
United and Liverpool were the two teams in the top 4 that he always loved playing against.
Glad you're seeing the light, obviously that's it. Because Ballon d'Or voters are always completely objective and make the correct decisions, so when they don't it's purely down to them hating waffles and chocolate
Especially high impact big game players like Hazard always struggle for recognition, it's usually the defenders stealing the votes.
Yes clearly, or high profile flashy players like Jorginho
Jorginho was selected once, Hazard was never selected top 5 in over 10yrs. Do you think they were wrong in all 10yrs?
Probably fellow players and team coaches didn't watch him enough in those 10yrs or didn't remember his name when voting
He's up there with the best in his generation but hasn't done enough, especially in CL, to be third best in generation.
Other than the obvious 2, what has he done more than Neymar, Benzema, Suarez, Bale, Lewa, Robben, Ribery, Iniesta, De Bruyne, Modric to be second best?
You could also debate and add Salah, Kane, Aguero, Griezmann.
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I mean obviously yes. There have been a lot of pathetic appeals to authority on this forum, but focusing on Ballon d'Or results is a special level of nonsense - especially given that the voting is done by a collective of hugely biased journalists who inevitably vote for their country's best player along with Messi and Ronaldo.
Just because an idiotically flawed and stupid process happens to come up with an especially stupid result once doesn't make every other result they've spit out not stupid.
Carried a team near single-handedly to multiple league titles? No one else you've listed has been more of a contributor attacking-wise to a title-winning side apart from Benzema, who only did so after Ronaldo left and that was post Hazard's peak anyway.
Everyone you mentioned will be rated higher than Hazard over the last 10yrs. They actually showed up in the CL unlike Hazard who was a ghost
If over your entire playing years of over 10yrs, Balon dor never even made him top 5 nor top7. Then you are the one overrating him
Was it that Belgium didnt have journalists or coaches didn't know the Belgian captain but they somehow knew Lewandowski as Polish captain, They know about Salah, They know about Bale who are even from more obscure nations
Without Messi/Ronaldo Hazard would never make top 5 at any time in the last 10yrs partly due to his abysmal performances in the CL
Yea our phil was something else......Still remember that awful Phil Jones tackle on him that won the penalty and the game for Chelsea in the cup final. Just...urghhh!
Single handedly? He had great players with him at Chelsea even if he was their best player. Everyone I've mentioned has had. Also top PL teams during his era weren't as strong. Not even Man City were as good. It was the era where Leicester was able to win a league.
Everyone I've mentioned has an their own team carry stories. Anyway I'm still calling him a great player. Maybe top 10 of his generation. But he has not been third best.
@kaiser1 Do you have any positive takes on Hazard at all? By far and away the most prolific poster in this thread going back years and your sole contribution appears t to be to piss all over any praise for Hazard anyone dares to post in here
Besides Ronaldo and Messi who was he levels behind? 2X FIFA Pro team of the year and 2X FIFA team of the year. He's a playmaker not a goal scorer and in his prime there were few better. Like I said before, longevity is one thing but he absolutely reached his peak or somewhere very close to it.
Which seasons? 15/16 he was playing through an injury, which are the others?
Great player for many years. No question. Funny though that for years we have read stories about team mates joking about how he was the laziest player in training, getting over weight in pre season but getting by on natural talent. Seems it’s all caught up with him now and his stock is low. If he can’t be a proper professional in his prime then he certainly won’t be now. Times up.
It would help his cause if he could have beat Willian on CL (np)G/A. With those two playing for the same team and all.
Baller. Enjoy the beers. Slainte lad.
I didn’t know goals and assists were the end all be all. He was clearly a better player than Willian, some I not sure why it matters.
You'd think an elite attacking player would leave someone like Willian in the dust by most metrics, let alone the really obvious ones.
Ah right. Suppose that means Paul Scholes is terrible because he never got a single vote? Using the Ballon d'Or as a measuring stick is idiotic beyond belief, and genuinely is probably stupider than using FIFA ratings.
He mostly had average attackers alongside him at Chelsea, this is not even a question. The best attacker he ever played with was Diego Costa for half a season in 14/15 before he got injured and half a season in 16/17 before he had his head turned by China and fell out with Conte.
You'd think that anyone posting on a football forum would actually have used their eyes to watch the game played, but alas!
You'll have to forgive me for watching more CL games of Chelsea than games against random PL teams.
You would think so if you thought stats alone determined who the better player was...
Wait, are you trying to tell me Willian was better than Hazard? I hope not.