2012 was the year of upliftment for current Real Madrid attacker Eden Hazard. The Belgian was at that time just 21 and the giant of London club, Chelsea FC sought his services. Hazard would go on to spend seven successful years at the club in which he left as a Champion, a Legend and a Friend.
Madrid in Spain would be the Belgian attacker’s next destination and there would be no other team in Madrid that would be willing to cough out a whooping 100 Million Euros to sign a player of that standard than Real Madrid.
The capital of Spain club made Hazard one of their top summer signings with the motive of filling up the huge gap Cristiano Ronaldo left at the club. It so happened that two months has passed since his arrival, with series of matches played amidst his injury layoff and the attacker is yet to hit the expected heights.
Hazard’s Preferred Position
Based on my research and analysis, I am forced to acknowledge the fact that Hazard is still struggling to hit the strides expected of him at Real Madrid because he is not playing with the freedom he was afforded at Chelsea and that freedom is strictly playing as both a false 9 and an attacking midfielder.
Eden Hazard began his success at Chelsea towards the latter years of his stay at the club. He became their key man. Holding the ball and drawing fouls for the team. He dribbles even more than Lionel Messi himself, shoots well and has a good eye for the goal from outside. Hazard thrived very much from the middle and I feel this is the reason why Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was experimenting on a 3-5-2 formation in preseason with the Belgian played as a striker in a two striking partnership but it goes without doubt that he is just there as a false striker.
It is no surprise that Hazard got his first Real Madrid goal in preseason friendly against Salzburg of Austria while playing as a false 9 and although those goals had lots to do with his brilliance on the ball, the Belgian found that space without having to worry about breaking the shape of the team’s formation from the wing, a position he has been played in ever since the season began.
Playing Hazard from the wing restricts the Belgian from performing to his fullest potential. It prevents him from drifting into the middle and then wide as he pleases because there are also experienced players in those positions who might be brilliant on the ball but do not have the end product of the Belgian.
Truly, Zidane has really got a tough decision to make concerning Hazard’s situation and the team at large and I am going to be delving more into these formation issues in one of my articles to come. The excess stars in the attacking section of the pitch are very much restricting Hazard from the freedom he needs and there are only two options. It is either Hazard adjusts his game and adapt to the demands of the Real Madrid wing or other attacking players are sacrificed for his sake, which is very difficult to see happening. Whatever is the case, I sincerely wish to see Eden succeed at Real
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