2018/2019 Premier League Discussion Part III

RealGunner wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:IMO Mané and De Bruyne are also better than Hazard

Nah no way. Specially not the cross merchant

The cross merchant?

Deary me

I am experienced to Mole's views on Hazard to who never has never rated Hazard as high as many (similarly to myself, previously in Hazard's latter stage despite acknowledging his raw talent) and clearly holds no agenda against him given his credit given to him by Mole last World Cup but I maintain to you Mole, that the specific criticism you had of Hazard himself, has slowly evolved into a far more purposeful player in his movements on and off the ball and of course, his creative influence on the team.

Whilst I do not doubt you have seen him enough, only request to see from fresh perspective.

Does not matter by now given I feel it is unfair to judge him in current circumstances though once again at Real, the microscope he will be under will be deserved at this stage of his career.

I’ve been a Hazard hater for a long time here, but this season he has been the best player in the league. I don’t know if I’ve been proven wrong, or he has improved this year but he has been excellent all season.

Hazard has been the best player in the league ever since Suarez left.

I don't think he's improved this season as a player. Perhaps in terms of leadership qualities, in terms of charisma and body language (I feel he already showed improvement on those things during the world cup)

The reason why he took a big statistical leap is because he had to deal with an unprecedented offensive burden. He's supposed to be our main creator and our main scorer, he's supposed to score a wondergoal every game we play, it's crazy how much we rely on him. Only Messi has an heavier load than him.

Drinkwater charged with drink-driving. The irony of this.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11688455/chelsea-midfielder-danny-drinkwater-charged-with-drink-driving

Vlad the Impaler wrote:Drinkwater charged with drink-driving. The irony of this.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11688455/chelsea-midfielder-danny-drinkwater-charged-with-drink-driving

judge after he bans him from driving. son next time you have a car you should consider drinking water.

In British English it's "drink-driving" and in American it's "drunk-driving"?

Arquitescu wrote:I am experienced to Mole's views on Hazard to who never has never rated Hazard as high as many (similarly to myself, previously in Hazard's latter stage despite acknowledging his raw talent) and clearly holds no agenda against him given his credit given to him by Mole last World Cup but I maintain to you Mole, that the specific criticism you had of Hazard himself, has slowly evolved into a far more purposeful player in his movements on and off the ball and of course, his creative influence on the team.

Whilst I do not doubt you have seen him enough, only request to see from fresh perspective.

Does not matter by now given I feel it is unfair to judge him in current circumstances though once again at Real, the microscope he will be under will be deserved at this stage of his career.

There's a reason i said except you Arq, i trust you obviously.

BTW Hazard has been fantastic this season, minimum top 3 in the league in my opinion.

everyone forgets the times hazard goes missing when results are not going well for chelsea. he has 3 good games and everyone says hes the best player in england then hes shit for 8-9 games and the thread just gathers dust then he has 3 good games again and hes back to being the best.

fuck off with Hazard being the best in the league in the last few years

last season Salah's debut season, better than Hazard's ever been

He might be the best currently this season but IMO it's because there are no real standout players at least not compared to previous years and tbh I'd still say Van Dijk's better than him

He ghosts too often in games but this season seems to have been pretty consistent

angling for that move to the Bernabeu

Firenze wrote:fuck off with Hazard being the best in the league in the last few years

last season Salah's debut season, better than Hazard's ever been

He might be the best currently this season but IMO it's because there are no real standout players at least not compared to previous years and tbh I'd still say Van Dijk's better than him

He ghosts too often in games but this season seems to have been pretty consistent

angling for that move to the Bernabeu

You have been drinking

He's right though.

For what is worth (which isn't much), I think this is the most consistent season I've seen from Hazard in a Chelsea shirt.

Hazard has been world-class for years, though, while Salah has one incredible season under his belt and two good ones in Serie A. Saying that Salah is as good as his last season suggests isn't quite correct.

And when it comes to Van Dijk comparisons, I just cannot rate a defender as highly as a world-class forward. The skills that guys like Hazard and Salah have acquired are just much more difficult to achieve than anything a center-back can do. You want to build a winning team and you have to choose between a world-class CB and a world-class forward, you should always choose the forward.

Doc wrote:For what is worth (which isn't much), I think this is the most consistent season I've seen from Hazard in a Chelsea shirt.

It is, I've said for years that he always got hype which wasn't really justified based on his performance.

The way he's played this year justifies that hype, but the way everyone talked is he's always been this good and he hasn't.

Salah's still having a season that's on par with most of Hazard's IMO though

as were at least one of his Roma seasons

disagree about the world class forward thing having skills far harder to achieve btw (I agree you would rather have a world class forward than a CB) but think of how many great to top players there are out there in a similar mould to Hazard and Salah and then think of how many truly elite CB's there are out there (VVD is fairly complete tbh, fantastic passing, absolute unit in the air and great defensively in general and just an elite mentality in general)...christ, I'd struggle to name 3 players in the last 5 years.

anyway I'm not trying to shit on Hazard as he's a fantastic player but I just don't subscribe to him being the best or even a top 5 player during the PL era (since he arrived)

The talent is clearly of world class level but I never found Hazard's performances in his time with Chelsea represented what his talent represented. Basically...

he always got hype which wasn't really justified based on his performance.

Tbh i'm pretty impressed he's leading at goals+assists taking into account the level of strikers he has to play behind.

also worth noting that a quarter of his goals are from penalties this season

Firenze still believes Januzaj and Kagawa are better than Hazard, so don't mind him.

Hazard has been directly involved in 49% of Chelsea goals that is just incredible, him being inconsistent is utter crap. The poorest Hazard played all season was when Sarri played him as a striker, clearly a role that poorly fits his skillset. He still put on fine performances against City twice in that role.

I want to but I can't actually say with any certainty that I absolutely did not claim that Januzaj was better than Hazard at one point

Considering you once wrote Bailey was a top 5 EPL defender, I think I can assume with some certainty you wrote something like that.

While I’ve been championing Hazard as the best player in the league this year, there’s also some revisionism going on as far as previous seasons go. He wasn’t the best player in the league for a few years now, and in my opinion not the best player playing for Chelsea either. That is until this year when he has stepped up another level.

Blue wrote:Firenze still believes Januzaj and Kagawa are better than Hazard, so don't mind him.

Hazard has been directly involved in 49% of Chelsea goals that is just incredible, him being inconsistent is utter crap. The poorest Hazard played all season was when Sarri played him as a striker, clearly a role that poorly fits his skillset. He still put on fine performances against City twice in that role.

Most of us are referring to before this season, nobody with sense thinks he's been inconsistent this season.

Hazard again being relevant at the very end so that people talk about him going into next season, man knows how to be remembered.