Eden Hazard is delaying his decision about leaving or staying at Chelsea for another half-season. Meanwhile, he and Maurizio Sarri can’t seem to agree about whether he likes being a false-nine.
Eden Hazard gave an interesting insight to how he views his performance on Friday. Whereas most forwards – and certainly most fans and pundits – use goals scored as a simple and direct measure, Hazard looks at goals quite independently of his overall play. After his scoring a brace to reach the 100 mark at Chelsea, he said “I’m scoring more goals, I don’t feel I’m playing better, I’m just scoring more goals.”
He went on to explain why he should not be compared to Dries Mertens, his countryman who excelled as Maurizio Sarri’s false-nine at Napoli. “Dries is more of a striker than me. I am more like a playmaker… We are different.”
Indeed they are. The question now is if Maurizio Sarri knows and cares.
For the former, maybe not. Sarri claimed not to be aware of any preference Hazard has for playing on the wing or as the striker.
For the latter, almost certainly not. Sarri cited Hazard’s goal output (you know, the thing Hazard says is a secondary concern, at best) as reason to keep the Belgian in the centre of the forward line. He twice said “I cannot see the problem” about keeping Hazard as the false-nine, despite Hazard’s explanation for what the problem is appearing in the international press.
The two men also gave diverging opinions on the matter of Hazard’s contract extension. Hazard said he will delay any decisions until the end of the season, a very thinly-veiled way of saying “No Champions League, no chance of me staying.” Sarri is not keen on such delays. Whereas he could not see any problem regarding Hazard’s place on the pitch, he most certainly sees the problem in the ongoing uncertainty about Hazard’s place on the map. “If we want to plan the future, we have to solve this problem.” But whereas Sarri will deploy Hazard where and how he sees fit, on the bigger issue “I have not the power to do this. I am the coach. I want to speak to him only about the position on the pitch.”
Are there any adults over at Chelsea FC? Both of these impasses cry out for the proverbial adult in the room to step in, mediate solutions and – if necessary – hold open the exit door for anyone unwilling to come to an agreement. Loyal readers will know Chelsea have not had someone deputized for that job in 416 days. And readers from the last 24 hours will know Chelsea need their owner to find some way of entering the country to handle things himself or appoint someone willing to do what must be done for this club to move forward.
Eden Hazard already has taken too many pages out of the Thibaut Courtois playbook for contract negotiations. That saga at least had a happy ending, with Courtois leaving for Real Madrid and promptly falling flat on his face.
The longer Hazard’s extension process resembles Courtois’, the more likely it will have the same outcome, but it will be much less happy when Hazard is the one departing Stamford Bridge.
The No. 10 / false-nine situation could turn out to be the pinnacle of Maurizio Sarri’s stubbornness. He sees what he sees in his system, his squad management practices or individual players like Willian and David Luiz. These are all debatable and subjective to varying extents. With Hazard, though, he is ignoring, contradicting or simply deaf to the explicit spoken words of the player in question. Sarri has his preferences for how to use Eden Hazard, but if he persists in the false-nine he cannot say there is no conflict between his preferences and the player’s.
Hazard’s contract situation is inextricable from his place on the squad. He will not stay if he is not satisfied with his usage. What Hazard and the coach are saying on the matter is as far opposed as possible short of open hostility. This would be bad enough, except any disagreement on this matter will exacerbate the overlapping disagreement regarding his contract extension, which was approaching a crisis point even before Sarri dropped both strikers in favour of a false-nine.
Chelsea need to draw the line on Eden Hazard’s delays. At some point they have to realize his actions are inconsistent with his professions of loyalty.
They also need someone, anyone, to speak with the authority of the owner and the board to players and coach alike. Maurizio Sarri knows the limits of his role. He is quite happy that his responsibility is limited along with his authority.
But with a coach who is only there to coach, no technical director and no owner in the country, the players fill the power vacuum. That has caused some of the worst episodes in club history, and is setting the stage for at least one more.