Eden Hazard: Charting his growth at Chelsea

Eden Hazard

When Eden Hazard first arrived at Chelsea, he brought much fanfare and a fair bit of controversy given how long he took to choose which club he wanted to join. The Belgian was touted as being one of the future stars of world football and the fact that Chelsea had managed to secure his signature was seen as a real coup for the club who had just been crowned Champions of Europe.

It’s safe to say that many Chelsea fans hadn’t seen a lot of Eden Hazard before he arrived at the club. What was known about him was that he was a tricky young attacking midfielder who was as good at setting up goals as he was at scoring them. However, when he managed to establish himself as a regular, it wasn’t in the #10 position that he had managed to make his own at Lille, but rather as an inverted left-winger who was given the license to cut in and drive into the box whenever he could. The one thing that was lacking from his game was a hard-working side; he rarely if ever tracked back, often leaving Ashley Cole exposed in a two-versus-one situation. This all changed rather quickly under interim manager Rafael Benitez.

Benitez has always been known to prefer using hard-working wingers in his 4-2-3-1 formation and it was under his guidance that Hazard, being deployed in his usual position on the left wing, began tracking back at every opportunity in order to help out in defence. One can argue that he didn’t need to do as much dirty work as he did, but the Belgian took it in his stride and as a result, he became a much more complete player.

That being said, his moments of sublime skill didn’t go unnoticed. Fast, tricky and with a very low centre of gravity, Hazard was a nightmare for most Premier League defenders who often had to resort to fouling him because they couldn’t catch him. His ability on the turn and his superb passing range combined with an excellent long shot made him a very dangerous player to come up against and he managed to win several matches for Chelsea either through his goals or assists.

However, there was a bit of a feeling that he hadn’t quite done as well as he could have because he wasn’t being deployed correctly. In his first season, he was deployed more as an inverted winger, one who could look to cut in whenever possible but who would also have to do his share of creative work. This has changed under Mourinho.

The Special One has looked to give him more freedom down that left wing by deploying him as an inverted forward, one who will look to take the shot on at every chance he gets and who will also look to make driving runs from the wing inside the penalty area in order to get himself into scoring positions. The recent match against Sunderland was a perfect example of what he can do when deployed in that position. He was a nightmare for the entire Sunderland defence whenever he chose to drive in from the wing because they couldn’t handle his pace and trickery and he was able to get himself into more dangerous positions.

Hazard is certainly one to watch out for in the future. If he can reach his full potential, he will most certainly be remembered as one of the finest footballers of his generation.