Maurizio Sarri continues to dig his hole deeper with his pressers challenging players. Challenging Eden Hazard will not go how Chelsea wants.
Chelsea managers have spent years trying to figure out Eden Hazard. Jose Mourinho asked too much of him on the defensive end. Antonio Conte asked too much on the offensive end. And Maurizio Sarri is just asking too much in general.
See, Hazard, by his own admittance, understands that he is frustrating. He knows his coaches have wanted more out of him. But Hazard does not want to change. Maurizio Sarri, following his post match presser after the Arsenal loss, is going in further by questioning his leadership.
Now it is fair of Sarri to challenge Hazard. It is also pretty fair of Hazard to say he is what he is now. But if Sarri thinks challenging Hazard’s leadership, motivation, ferocity, or contribution is going to make Hazard change then he is simply wrong. He is drawing a line in the sand that will likely make it impossible for the two to coexist for another year.
Modern football does not really allow for passengers anymore. Players like Mesut Ozil can change a game in an instant, but they spend another 80 minutes being uninvolved. Hazard is similar in that he can change a match at any moment, but there are a lot of times where it seems like someone else can contribute more overall.
It is noteworthy that both Antonio Conte and Sarri saw this in Hazard and came to the same conclusion of putting Hazard centrally. In theory, there he can be most free to influence the play and the defensive liability is lessened. But both managers have also run into the issue of Hazard not being able to be that focal point on his own.
Rather than look at how he could better use Hazard, Sarri is challenging the Belgian to do what is asked. It will not work. For better or worse, Hazard is one of the world’s most talented players and he knows it. As he says, he will not change now.
So the solution is not to tell him “do x, y, and z” but to find a role that suits his nature. As a striker is on the right track but involves the wrong execution.
If Hazard wants to play in a free role, then give him a free role. But two other factors need to be considered. The first is how that affects the defensive set up and the second is how it affects the offensive set up.
Defensively, it would be best to play Hazard as high up as possible. That is why playing him at striker has been the solution. It puts him out of the firing line and lets other players do the dirty work. But it hurts the team offensively to have Hazard alone up top. The compromise could be to pair Hazard with a striker either alongside him or in front of him.
That would, of course, require a formation change. Sarri seems extremely hesitant to look in the mirror and ask what he can do to improve things and these comments about Hazard are linked to that. Hazard may be limited in ways, but a good manager looks for ways to work around that.
Sarri continues to look for ways to ram a square peg into a round hole. It will not work the way he thinks it will. And that means that over time, Sarri and Hazard will not be able to coexist at the club. Conte found this out the hard way and Sarri is moving in that direction.