I’ll admit, Eden Hazard has really exceeded my expectations so far this season. Whilst I was confident that Antonio Conte would be able to garner the best out of Hazard, I believed it would be a slow process, like it was under Jose Mourinho, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how quickly he has adjusted to life under the Italian. The recently-appointed Chelsea head coach has taken the Belgian international to new heights.
It really has been quite the resurgence. Hazard is excelling and finally enjoying his football at Stamford Bridge once again, after last season’s complete and utter debacle, for both club and player. Chelsea’s No.10 scored just six goals across all competitions and has already surpassed that measly tally in 16/17 in a considerably less amount of games.
This season, Hazard has scored seven goals in fourteen games—he has started in eleven of those—and provided two assists. “The most important thing I’m seeing with Eden is he’s fantastic with the ball and without the ball,” said the exuberant Conte after his side’s 5-0 thrashing of Everton. “He’s a complete player, when he plays in this way—with the ball and without the ball. He must continue because he has great talent and he’s showing this in every game.”
More shots, more goals
Hazard scored for the fourth successive league game against Everton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening, in one of the best individual performances at Stamford Bridge in recent memory—taking his tally up to seven goals in the 2016/17 Premier League season, only behind Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and his similarly revived teammate, Diego Costa. It’s the best run of goalscoring form Hazard has been on in his career, and eleven games is the quickest amount of time he has ever reached that total in.
It seems those goals have come as a direct result of the 25-year-old’s newly-found greed. I’ve always felt that his selflessness is holding him back from becoming part of football’s elite; in the same bracket as the world’s greatest players, like Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez. With such an unselfish attitude—predominately opting for the pass instead of pulling the trigger in good areas—Hazard was unfortunately never going to reach that level. Finally becoming more selfish and direct under the tutelage of Conte, Hazard is averaging 3.3 shots per game this season. It’s his highest average shots per game ratio in a Chelsea shirt since joining in 2012.
“I try to shoot [more],” said Hazard in a recent interview. “People talk to me and say, ‘You don’t shoot enough.’ Now I try to shoot a lot because if you don’t shoot you can’t score. I don’t know if the ball will go in but I have more chance if I shoot. This is my job.”
Hazard has already registered 34 shots this season, 22 more than the 12 he had after 11 games last season, and has only taken two less then he did in the entirety of last season in the Premier League; 36 in 31 games. If you feel that’s not the fairest comparison for the most obvious reasons, then compared to 2014/15, his best season at Stamford Bridge, the diminutive Belgian has had 14 more shots than he had at this stage two years ago under Mourinho—20.
It’s refreshing to finally have a manager at the helm who encourages Hazard to be that little more selfish. Hazard’s actually got a very underrated, lethal right foot. In fact, the same can actually be said about his left foot, too. It’s just always bothered me that his shooting abilities never been used to their full effect. Now that they are, though, it’s reaping dividends for both Chelsea and Hazard.
The 3-4-3 and his free role
After the 3-0 victory over Leicester City at Stamford Bridge, Eden Hazard told Sky Sports: “I play more inside the pitch and I don’t stay wide [in the 3-4-3]. I play this system with the Belgian side. We have more freedom and we can win the ball back. It is good for us.”
Just two days earlier, Hazard suggested that Antonio Conte wasn’t playing him in the correct position—he said he would prefer to play as a No.10, more centrally. “I like to play as a No.10. I think I have more freedom offensively. For Belgium, we have full-backs who run hard and create a lot of space, which is good and I like to play there,” Hazard said. “It’s true I like to play as a 10. Sometimes at Chelsea we don’t play with a system with a No.10, too. I don’t think Chelsea wants to change just for me as a 10.”
In the 3-4-3, his wish to act as a more central figure is finally being granted by Conte like he is that genie in Aladdin. Genie. Imagine Antonio Conte as a genie though. Very weird. But probably still brilliant nonetheless.
Back to Hazard and away from genies, and the thought of Conte as one—comparing his average position in the Leicester game to 2-1 home defeat to Liverpool, the difference is as clear as daylight:
In the loss to Arsenal, Hazard was heavily criticized for switching off and not tracking full-back Hector Bellerin as the Spaniard ran in behind the Chelsea back-line and slotted the ball across the box for Theo Walcott to score.
It wasn’t the first time that had happened in a big game before. In 2014, Jose Mourinho questioned his commitment after a Champions League semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid, in which Hazard failed to track Juanfran in the build-up for the visitors’ equaliser. The same then happened later on in the night for Atletico’s third goal, where Juanfran once again evaded Hazard before creating the goal that effectively killed the tie.
Conte isn’t stubborn, unlike his predecessor. He adapts to his players’ needs. After that defensive error, he gave Hazard a more free role. It’s now Marcos Alonso that does the defensive work.
He claims that his manager has not made that many changes. “Conte has not change a lot, it is just that I have a little bit more freedom when we have the ball and without the ball.” Emphasizing the effect Alonso has had on his game, Hazard said: “I don’t need to defend against the right-back, because Marcos Alonso is there. I just focus on staying in my position. And when I have the ball I have more freedom and can go where I want to go, and be decisive.”
It’s safe to say that Eden is back to his best.
