Chelsea: Eden Hazard should not be exempt from criticism – or the bench

On a day when the best thing anyone associated with Chelsea FC could do is simply stay quiet, Eden Hazard talked about how he has frustrated all of his coaches, right up to Maurizio Sarri. Maybe Chelsea should think about what their star said.

Depending on who you talk to, Eden Hazard is either having a wonderful season basking in the freedom afforded by Maurizio Sarri’s possession-based schema or he is having a quite mediocre season. The former category is mostly the Evangelical First Church of Sarri. They think possession is synonymous with freedom for the forwards and offensive production for the team, and who point towards Hazard’s 10 goals and 10 assists. The latter category contains people who understand FIFA is a football video game, but not football itself; people who can perform a rudimentary analysis of a game and know how to use the “Detailed” tab on WhoScored; and Hazard himself.

Those deeper stats show how Hazard is doing less of those things that make him who he is, and doing them less well. He is attempting 5.4 dribbles per 90 minutes, the second-fewest of any of his Premier League campaigns. Worse, he is completing 61.1% of them, his second-lowest rate of successful dribbles while at Chelsea. This is in line with his success rate in his first four years at Chelsea, but are a stark drop from the last two seasons: 76.8% and 82.4% while suffering under Antonio Conte.*

While contrasting himself to Dries Mertens, Hazard says goals are not the most useful metric for talking about how well he is playing. He would rather be in the creator-provider role than the finishing role.

But as Chelsea have seen at times over the last few seasons and are seeing again right now, Hazard’s will has more to do with his output than his role.

He is a perfect example of what Gary Neville meant on Sunday when he said Chelsea players are “turning it on and off like a tap.” Hazard does not like playing in the centre of the front line and it shows in his performance. He has minimal defensive duties as the centre-forward, and the freedom to move nearly anywhere around the top of Chelsea’s movement. But he tends to drop and stay deep when assigned to the centre. He could move out to the wings to draw players toward him, direct the winger on that side to open up space and initiate the play. But he chooses not to.

A video that went mini-viral after the Southampton game showed Hazard getting upset at Marcos Alonso on the left touchline. Most people blamed Alonso for the incident because they blame Alonso for everything, and because blaming Hazard is unthinkable to much of the Chelsea world.

But if you watch the moments leading up to Hazard’s outburst you see Alonso dribbling the ball up the touchline, motioning Hazard to move up in front to receive a pass. Hazard – the forward – decides to stay behind and inside of Alonso, the full-back. Hazard offered Alonso nothing in that position, other than the defenders he drew towards him, who ultimately put the ball out of play from Alonso’s feet. Hazard simply thought he had the right to overrule Alonso even though he was in Alonso’s area at the expense of being in a more advantageous position for a creative forward.

That sense of entitlement layered on poor positioning while his team were in a difficult patch is the sort of thing that leave his coaches frustrated with him. Hazard admitted Monday:

"I didn’t just frustrate Conte. In my career I have frustrated all of my trainers. Now here I am frustrating [Maurizio] Sarri. They think I need to mark more, do more here, more than I am doing. And the next coach I have, I will also frustrate him! – Goal"

Plus one point for self-awareness, plus one point for self-deprecating humour. Minus one point for unprofessionalism, minus one point for low ambitions, minus one point for proving Maurizio Sarri correct.

Maurizio Sarri is finding it difficult to motivate his players because he is threatening no sticks to complement the stale carrot of fun. Eden Hazard, like 13 other players, knows he will continue to start regardless of how he plays because Maurizio Sarri does not condition future appearances on past performance. Hazard has nothing to fear just as Victor Moses, Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi learned at various stages that they have nothing to hope for.

Without that pressure and incentive Hazard has no reason not to laze into his most frustrating tendencies.

If Maurizio Sarri needs more from Hazard than Hazard is willing to give, then there’s a place for Hazard on the bench. If Hazard feels he is too big for the bench, he can either fight his way back into the XI or make a long overdue decision to leave for Real Madrid.

This would solve many of Sarri’s motivational issues. When the rest of the squad sees Hazard fighting to get off or stay off the bench, they will understand the necessity of doing the same.

Sarri could potentially end the entire transfer drama by making Eden Hazard choose: not choose between Chelsea and Real Madrid, but choosing between working for his spot at Chelsea or coasting through his next few years somewhere else. He may be uninterested in any situation where he has to work just to get on the pitch. If that’s the case, he will have to shop around for a less internally competitive club. He should talk to Gareth Bale or a few others at Real Madrid about what happens there if you do not earn your spot every damn hour of every damn day.

Chelsea fans love Eden Hazard for his talent. Maurizio Sarri seems a bit enamored by it, too. But Hazard’s earlier, more experienced, more ambitious and more demanding coaches saw through his talent and looked at his potential.

For a player to have as much talent as Hazard and still have so much potential left unrealized is enough to drive men to the point of madness. It did for Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, and is moving that way with Maurizio Sarri. Before Sarri succumbs to frustration, he should let Hazard know what it’s like to not get what you want so easily.

*Hazard completed more dribbles per 90 last season than in any other Premier League campaign. Just in case you thought you’d get me on percentage vs. total.