7 minutes ago, Hazard10 said:

Hazard has always been more of a creator then a finisher. 

6 goals in 1195 minutes this season.

Last season he had 16 in 2985 minutes. 

Slightly behind but not by much.

Morata imo is getting too much stick. He has 10 goals halfway through the season.

Costa had 20 at the end of last season. Morata is right on course to equal Costa's tally.

Our lack of goals has more to do with the switch from a front 3 to a front 2 in favour of an extra midfielder and more defensive solidity.

Thing is Hazard is now playing as part of a front two rather than wide left, where is played predominantly before this season. 

A lot of the defensive duties have been removed from his game so he can concentrate on attack and with that I would have expected a bigger output from him in term of goals and assists contributed. 

Morata is struggling right now and for as well as Hazard's general play has been recently I think we need him to step up and try and score more goals himself. 

20 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Thing is Hazard is now playing as part of a front two rather than wide left, where is played predominantly before this season. 

A lot of the defensive duties have been removed from his game so he can concentrate on attack and with that I would have expected a bigger output from him in term of goals and assists contributed. 

Morata is struggling right now and for as well as Hazard's general play has been recently I think we need him to step up and try and score more goals himself. 

While i understand the reasoning you're using i think it's important to keep in mind that due to the switch from a front 3 to a front 2 the opposition has 1 less player to worry about and Hazard has 1 less player for support when going forward. In the 3-5-2 Hazard and Morata only really have eachother for support.  

1 minute ago, Hazard10 said:

While i understand the reasoning you're using i think it's important to keep in mind that due to the switch from a front 3 to a front 2 the opposition has 1 less player to worry about and Hazard has 1 less player for support when going forward. In the 3-5-2 Hazard and Morata only really have eachother for support.  

That's not really true. 

Fabregas is more or less given free license to get up and support the two of them. Bakayoko has been pushing forward quite a lot too, just hasn't been very effective in the final third, and then the wingbacks push forward and provide options and support on the overlap. 

11 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

That's not really true. 

Fabregas is more or less given free license to get up and support the two of them. Bakayoko has been pushing forward quite a lot too, just hasn't been very effective in the final third, and then the wingbacks push forward and provide options and support on the overlap. 

But that's the thing though neither Fabregas, Bakayoko or Drinkwater have been particularly effective in the final third. Bakayoko has 2 goals, Drinkwater and Fabregas each have 1.  The extra man offers them more freedom but they haven't made use of it at all. Against teams that sit deep they've struggled to make an impact while against top teams it seems like they've been told to pick their moments and be very cautious. 

Fabregas is the only player that has the quality but he simply lacks the legs to effectively play the position for me. Drinkwater and Bakayoko have the legs but lack the quality.

Edited January 11, 20188 yr by Hazard10

21 minutes ago, Hazard10 said:

But that's the thing though neither Fabregas, Bakayoko or Drinkwater have been particularly effective in the final third. Bakayoko has 2 goals, Drinkwater and Fabregas each have 1.  The extra man offers them more freedom but they haven't made use of it at all. Against teams that sit deep they've struggled to make an impact while against top teams it seems like they've been told to pick their moments and be very cautious. 

Fabregas is the only player that has the quality but he simply lacks the legs to effectively play the position for me. Drinkwater and Bakayoko have the legs but lack the quality.

Do we think a Kante, Cesc and Barkley trio works. Providing Kante sits deep? 

1 minute ago, Adamrb said:

Do we think a Kante, Cesc and Barkley trio works. Providing Kante sits deep? 

I think it would be an improvement IF Barkley is able to get back to the level he was before his injury. 

It could work.

 

Yeah the 3-5-2 has definitely hampered us going forward. Fabregas doesn't score anywhere enough goals to benefit the team in the more advanced role. Drinkwater was pushed further forward in the first half last night but ideally he wanted to be where Fabregas was playing. Our wing backs aren't attacking the byline enough and putting decent crosses in, which is obviously vital with this formation.

He said he's going to sign a new contract at the NBA game, after Tibo.

I f**king love this man.

If he signs a contract, I can see him staying with us for the rest of his career. 

He would become (if not already) a club legend.

2 hours ago, sonic90 said:

He said he's going to sign a new contract at the NBA game, after Tibo.

 

Let's hope he signs a new contract soon, I actually reckon he'll stay here for the rest of his career he's talked about not wanting to play too late into his 30s 33 probably being the maximum I'd think, plenty of time to win a load of trophies with us and cement himself as one of our greatest ever.

22 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Thing is Hazard is now playing as part of a front two rather than wide left, where is played predominantly before this season. 

A lot of the defensive duties have been removed from his game so he can concentrate on attack and with that I would have expected a bigger output from him in term of goals and assists contributed. 

Morata is struggling right now and for as well as Hazard's general play has been recently I think we need him to step up and try and score more goals himself. 

Hazard has always had ridiculous inconsistency in front of goal, it's like it just doesn't come natural to him when it should. 

Just the last game for example, how many times did he keep overplaying it instead of hitting the trigger? And the one time he did hit the trigger was when he should have squared the ball, it wasn't an easy angle to score from. 

He overcomplicates it, for someone with his ability he should be scoring a lot more goals playing up-top with little defensive duties. It's cliche but it's true. 

31 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Hazard has always had ridiculous inconsistency in front of goal, it's like it just doesn't come natural to him when it should. 

Just the last game for example, how many times did he keep overplaying it instead of hitting the trigger? And the one time he did hit the trigger was when he should have squared the ball, it wasn't an easy angle to score from. 

He overcomplicates it, for someone with his ability he should be scoring a lot more goals playing up-top with little defensive duties. It's cliche but it's true. 

Lets hope top people at Real Madrid read this forum - you may have just put them off signing Hazard! 

I agree with the above, when he's cutting in from the left, he should be taking more first time shots. The defenders know what's coming, the longer he holds the ball, the more time defenders could block that shot. His natural ( best) shot is the one curling in from the far post, so he'd probably has a better chance to score if he pulls his trigger early. I think with 352, one of the midfielder has to push higher up and be more attack minded. Cesc is great at passing the ball from deep, it's up to 1 of the other 2 to make runs in the midfield, draw defenders and let Hazard receive the ball in central area rather than on the wings around the half way line. Alonso is not helping either in terms of the general play, he needs to hold his ground instead of cut in and forcing Hazard go wide, then try to cut back in.

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Lets hope top people at Real Madrid read this forum - you may have just put them off signing Hazard! 

The thing is, I don't think we've ever had a player who's as good as he is at this club, he's the best player to ever wear the blue for me. I just wish he was more precise when it came to scoring goals, in Mourinho's first two seasons here he looked like he was improving in front of goal, despite having the defensive duties. But now without the defensive duties and the freedom to do what he wants he's still not anywhere near clinical enough. 

A new contract doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s staying. We see it all the time players signing new contracts and then leaving a year later. Just a way of securing a big transfer 

please be true..pretty please. 

 

Hazard is top 5 in the world imo, and we don't deserve him. If we can keep him this is amazing news and better than any new signing. 

On 12/01/2018 at 12:23, JM7 said:

A new contract doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s staying. We see it all the time players signing new contracts and then leaving a year later. Just a way of securing a big transfer 

It would take over 200m to get him if he were to sign a new deal, not happening.

5 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

It would take over 200m to get him if he were to sign a new deal, not happening.

That and we can tell anyone to f**k off for at least 2-3 years

Should never have been taken off today. Yeah, he wasn't having his best game, but he was still our most attacking player. I'm so tired of seeing Hazard and Morata being in 2v6 situations. Hazard can run through defenses, but he can't do it every single time. He needs help up top, not to be taken off after 60 minutes when we finally decide to go for it. When we switch to an attacking mindset, wouldn't it be better to keep our most talented player on the pitch ?

Teams are just packing the middle of the pitch now and Hazard has little space to work his magic. At least in a 3-4-3 he has Pedro or Willian to play with. He is getting isolated very badly in the 3-5-2.  Even a dunce who knows little about football can see that.  Conte our manager who gets paid millions of pound apparently can't. 

8 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Should never have been taken off today. Yeah, he wasn't having his best game, but he was still our most attacking player. I'm so tired of seeing Hazard and Morata being in 2v6 situations. Hazard can run through defenses, but he can't do it every single time. He needs help up top, not to be taken off after 60 minutes when we finally decide to go for it. When we switch to an attacking mindset, wouldn't it be better to keep our most talented player on the pitch ?

Agree on all points - my worry is that if we keep expecting him to work miracles by himself that he will get tired of this and could be a factor in him wanting to move to Madrid etc...

Needs help around him and it starts with the manager getting Willian/Pedro more involved by changing the formation.

27 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Should never have been taken off today. Yeah, he wasn't having his best game, but he was still our most attacking player. I'm so tired of seeing Hazard and Morata being in 2v6 situations. Hazard can run through defenses, but he can't do it every single time. He needs help up top, not to be taken off after 60 minutes when we finally decide to go for it. When we switch to an attacking mindset, wouldn't it be better to keep our most talented player on the pitch ?

He is tired of carrying our attack for the past 6 years. When the opposition keep Hazard quiet your 80% stopping Chelsea, this is why buying Mahrez would make so much sense because if Hazard is quiet the opposite still have to stop Mahrez. Hazard needs more help.

Probably his worst performance of the season today, nothing was coming off for him.

Worrying with him off the boil we look woeful, slightly worried that we’re becoming a little too reliant on Eden to come up with the goods. 

If eden plays bad, the team does. He needs more support as the burden is too much.

His posture is suprisingly good considering he's been carrying Chelsea for the last 3 seasons.