Eden Hazard was excellent against Newcastle but he was also a major problem. The Belgian needs to trust the new Chelsea to be at his best.
Eden Hazard is used to being the best player on the team. For every squad he has been on, he has been the most naturally talented player. Usually, he is the most important as well. The Belgian is used to having to do things on his own to pull the team over the line.
And his performance against Newcastle speaks for itself. Every time he was on the ball, he was electric and dangerous. Rafa Benitez’s side could only hack him down in hopes of stopping him.
But Hazard was also part of the problem against Newcastle. His performance caused confusion for his Chelsea teammates and often left the Blues with a limp attack. It is understandable why Hazard thinks he needs to do everything on his own; it is all he has known at Chelsea for years. But the Belgian needs to trust his midfielders to do their job. And he needs to trust what Maurizio Sarri is trying to do at Chelsea.
Basically, Hazard’s biggest issue was trying to be involved in every play. Whenever the Chelsea midfield had the ball, Hazard would leave his wide position and look to receive it in the attacking midfield spot. He would then dribble around looking for space and teammates.
But his teammates were unsure of where to go when Hazard came so far central. Of the front six players (the midfield three and forward three), only Alvaro Morata and Jorginho stayed in position. The other three besides Hazard of Mateo Kovacic, Pedro, and N’Golo Kante all scrambled to cover for Hazard’s roaming.
Now, that problem is twofold. First of all, Hazard should not be settling right in the middle of the pitch. Second of all, Kovacic should be the player moving wide as Hazard comes central. But Hazard is only supposed to go as far as the half space or swap with Pedro entirely. Since he went completely central, he left the entire shape unbalanced which forced the scramble.
When Hazard stayed in the wider areas, Chelsea was more dangerous because they were more organized and it made Hazard more difficult to defend against. With Hazard wide, the rest of the team used all their options as opposed to passing it to Hazard. Again, that is not entirely on Hazard. His teammates should not have got tunnel vision for him.
This more or less comes down to Hazard not trusting the midfield of Kovacic, Jorginho, and Kante to advance the ball well enough. As such, he came looking for it which left Chelsea short of options farther up the pitch and allowed Newcastle and easier defense of the pitch.
A bigger picture view of that is Hazard does not trust Sarri yet. Sarri’s tactics so far have been clear and organized. It has been about vertical passing, spreading the pitch, and moving as a team. With Hazard trying to do it all, the three pillars of Sarrismo struggled. It became tika-taka. It became possession without purpose.
The first step to solving this issue is trust. Hazard needs to trust his team to do what they need to do. He needs to trust Sarri when he is playing Hazard wider. It is far too early and Chelsea does not have the right players to perform in reaction to Hazard’s looking for everything centrally. Hazard can do amazing things by himself. But he can do the best things with his team. That will require trust.