Is Eden Hazard Overrated?

The short answer: no. He’s an incredibly talented footballer playing for one of the top clubs in the Premier League. There is a commonly banded around trope, however, labelling the Belgian as overrated.

It is, at times, very hard to understand the logic of such a label, especially after his magnificent goal against Liverpool in the League Cup last night. He is a player who possesses a uniquely brilliant dribbling, combing excellent close control and low centre of gravity with powerful short bursts in speed. The brute force of his shooting, too, is something spectacular. He has a formidable skill set, making him capable of turning a game on its head in an instant.

This argument is often centred around Hazard’s lack of goals. It’s true that his returns aren’t mind blowing, but an average of just under fifteen a season during his time at Chelsea is hardly a figure to be sneered at for someone who often operates from out wide. The stat is made to look unfavourable, though, by the ‘best in the world’ cries that are sometimes banded around. This draws the inevitable comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Being pitted against two players for whom thirty goals in a season is essentially a given, however, is not really a fair assessment. Messi and Ronaldo are superhuman, comparisons with them are generally pretty pointless.

Another accusation thrown the Belgian’s way is lack of consistency. It is, though, an accusation also thrown at many players of his creative, attacking style. The nature and difficulty of their job does often lead to some mixed performances. Opposition teams will always be looking to shut down players like Hazard for Chelsea. Their task is to essentially figure out a new a puzzle every game. Even with these difficulties, Hazard has managed comfortably above one hundred and fifty goals and assists in just over three hundred games for Chelsea. It’s a good output, yet many positive figures do pale in the aforementioned comparison the Messi and Ronaldo.

The turbulent nature of Chelsea’s managers is also something that needs to be considered. Maurizio Sarri is the sixth (seventh, if you include Steve Holland’s managing of one game) manager to have taken charge of the Blues since Hazard’s arrival in the summer of 2012. With each man in charge, a new philosophy is implemented and the role of Hazard is altered. Indeed, under Antonio Conte and José Mourinho, he has been restricted by defensive styles and system - not least when he was, at times, left isolated up front under Mourinho. Such shackles, as well as the constant chopping and changing of styles, will surely have hampered Hazard’s overall productivity.

This season has the potential to allow Hazard to prove those doubters who wave his goal tally in his face wrong. After being gently brought back into the starting line up by Maurizio Sarri after his World Cup exploits, Chelsea’s number ten seems to be firing on all cylinders. He has spoken about his enjoyment of playing attacking football under Sarri, operating on the side of the front three. He has particularly excelled when aided by the complimentary brilliance of Giroud when the Frenchman has been used at centre forward. After notching up six goals so far already, this could well be the season in which Hazard breaks the twenty goal hoodoo.

Lining up Eden Hazard alongside Messi and Ronaldo would be wrong. At the moment, nobody can really compare to them. In the group of players below them, however, Hazard surely sits among the forerunners. With the spurt of enthusiasm and attacking football instilled by Sarri, hopefully this season will bear fruit to some hard figures to finally put his doubters to bed.

(Photo: World Soccer)