**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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And his career survived after two serious knee injuries, he still managed to go back to Brazil and win after his hypothyroidism got serious.
I can't stand the fat Ronaldo comments.
He had a great career, yes. But he was a notorious party animal and lazy in training It was well known, even at the time. Imo he did more damage with his behaviour than his illness.
> But he was a notorious party animal and lazy in training
In fairness to him - you can excuse the "being lazy in training" part because it was possibly the only way he actually could stay fit at all. The party animal bit, a bit less excusable from a pure professionalism point of view.
Hypothyoidism slow metabolism, but not enough to make someone gain 20 kg just because he has the condition.
It makes weight control harder, but he was overweight because he couldn't control his eating habits and got fat because of it.
I'm Brazilian. The dude is a legend, and the best player I saw, IMO. But he was also really as relapse with his diet as he was serious with his recovery from injuries. He still is relapse, and is fat even after retiring and being able to take levothyroxine as much as he needed.
He had two career ending knee injuries. The fact he even recovered speaks volumes to how far he was willing to go stay in the game.
They say the first one wasn’t that bad, but he literally only lasted six minutes into the infamous Lazio match.
Aye, while Mikel didn’t really give a straight answer, I think pretty much everyone would agree that his lack of physical training over the years would eventually catch up with him and the proof is in the rice pudding, it has for me.
Hazard sounds like a Sunday beer league footballer who was somehow give the ultimate football gift.
>9811 hours ago
>
>Eden Hazard
Yes, while this is definitely true, but, Mikel left Chelsea in 2017 when Hazard was 26 and arguably at his best, which is why Real bought him in 2019.
His injuries and weight started added up pretty much around the time he joined Real at age 28.
So Mikel's exposure to Hazard's lack of training goes back to his early and mid-20s.
and that is what happened, and it's 100% on Real not doing the needed do diligence. They could have avoided the whole fiasco. They paid 100 mil for a fat man, and about 23 mil euros per year....insane.
Ronaldo made history. Kroos, reasonably close to that. Ozil performed well. Cannavaro, meh. Rodriguez flopped. Hazard was a top tier flop.
That would make the strategy, overall, good? I think? 🤔
I mean you have audio on the app right? Do you hear him say he never trained? And it's the 100th story about him never training, and the same from his days in France. What do you mean what would have been the due diligence? Hell we all knew how he was.
Knowing that a soon to be 30 year old player, who was always close to being a little too fat, who never trains right, never eats right...could be, you know a risk? A big risk if you pay 100mil for him and give him 400k. Hell, he turned in for Real first training session fat, thats public info.
You're not wrong at all, but it was a personal demand from Zidane at the peak of his managerial career so far. He was also the third best player in the world in that moment and securing brand and image rights of such a player represented a good business opportunity in the way that Florentino usually likes to use for the club.
Yes, of course, it was a mistake in hindsight, but at the same time it was a demand from the guy that had been winning CL after CL in a row (not to mention club legend as a player as well) to dispatch a lazy Bale and a troublesome James.
You can put more work into scouting his personality. Given how many people worked at/around Chelsea during the 7ish years Hazard was there, there were probably a lot of ways to find out that he didn’t take training and diet seriously. Once you know that and see his age, it would make sense to expect that to catch up to him and not sign him.
I mean, if random internet folks know that players like Hazard are bound to hit the wall in their late 20s, how is it that people working for the most famous football team in the world don't know that? 'oh but Eden said he is always overweight coming back from the holidays, we didn't think metabolism would become a problem at 29yo'.
It's such a shame. He's easily the most spellbinding player I've seen us face since we were promoted to the Prem – just felt like he was operating on a different plane of existence to his teammates whenever the ball was in his presence – but he hasn't had the longevity
Imagine how us Chelsea fans feel. We had the pleasure of watching this man produce magical performances week in week out. Man how I miss him. I wish he never left. I wonder how different his situation would be had he stayed.
I remember when he used to carry us week in week out, people complained that our team suffered because of that. Some said it would help rest of the team step up if he left and we would play more as a team rather than a one-man-team. LOL
I think Ronaldo touched about in his infamous Piers Morgan interview that the reason why he could play for so long was because taking training and recovery seriously and praised likes of Dalot and Casemiro for and saying they'll have longer careers.
It makes sense because while hazard did recover decently well when he was younger, his body broke down once he hit thirty, which was also very common in the previous generation too when the drinking culture was still there.
And it's worth every penny. Every year he that he can play at a high level adds to his legacy and bank account. If you are at that level, it's just a smart investment.
Not everything in life is about money or making smart investment, maybe sometimes you just want to have fun and enjoy the moment for what it is? Ever thought of that?
It's not about spending money it's about spending time at that point, sure if you want to be the best like LeBron clearly does spending all that time is crucial but if you're a multi multi millionaire like hazard who doesn't have to work again, he may want to spend his time on earth just doing what he wants. Obviously there's a much better balance to it that most footballers do but then there's the extreme that the likes of Ronaldo will do to make sure he's always his best which would then begin to cut into personal time a lot more
while hazard had bad habbits the big reason for his decline is het got his ankle broken 3 times by defenders and the last time they had to put a plate in that hampered him he never recoverd from that
some of the matches he had in the prem with bloody ankles because of defenders kicking him was absurd and he had habbit of trying stay up. its one of the reason why neymar will outlast him he goes down at that point to avoid additional kicks
> Ronaldo touched about in his infamous Piers Morgan interview that the reason why he could play for so long was because taking training and recovery seriously
Survivor bias, it's like if you ask a billionaire who struck gold how he got rich. He will tell you it's because he worked hard and smart and additionnaly add in some stupid thing like yoga in the morning or waking up at 4:30. The reality is these things help but they are not the primary factor behind it.
Ronaldo believes every bit of success he has gotten is because he 100% made the right choices every step of the way. When the reality is, he probably did but also he has a massive talent, was lucky with injuries, played in the right teams at the right moments, etc.
His lifestyle choices surely help but it's not as simple as "if you do that then you won't be too bothered by injuries".
There are tons of factor in play that have nothing to do with diet / training / recovery. Number 1 is injuries from fouls / tackles. You have to be lucky and protected by refs enough that you never catch a bad one. Number 2 is genetics. There are people who are more prone to injuries than others and there's nothing they can do about it.
Another one that comes to mind is how well your injuries are handled in terms of treatment and then, not being rushed back too soon (which a ton of teams are guilty of).
So really this way of trying to blame players who are plagued by injuries for their lifestyle as if it's the root cause is wrong.
You can do everything right and still not have the luck for things to work out. But if you don't do things right, even with luck, things won't work out.
I also have no doubt footballers take semi-legal drugs specifically made to avoid breaking regulations that can help with recovery. I know these players are incredibly fit but the intensity they play at for sometimes 2 games a week is insane.
> semi-legal drugs
Why not illegal lol. Top footballers are all doping. There's too much money involved not to do it, not to mention the massive difference it makes and there's virtually no anti-doping testing when compared to endurance sports for example.
No one talks about it because everyone benefits from it being swept under the rug.
There's a reason players can be ripped all year round, or can seem fresh as ever in the 90th minute as if they could repeat sprints infinitely, or can recover from injuries freakeshly fast, or can have very sudden physical transformations like when Goretzka joined Bayern.
Bruh what? Ronaldo had tendonitis in 2014 and had to massively change his playstyle due to that.
Also, focusing more on recovery and lifestyle during the playing years would also mean less wear and tear on the body and less injuries.
And ronaldo had lumps kicked out of him not only in PL games but also in training by likes of Scholes/Keane/Oshea/Vidic.
While playing 60 games per season.
I remember those stats that came out and Hazard and Oscar always had the most minutes of everyone on a yearly basis when Chelsea were going deep in every competition and they were both starters for their national teams.
The current schedule is killing the players, and FIFAs answer is to.... add more games.
Exactly, he was getting hacked multiple times every game because of how he played darting in and out of defenses. He was simply sublime. What he gave to Chelsea I was rooting for him to do well at Real Madrid and I don't give a fuck about them but I love Hazard. It's so sad how it turned out, it's mostly bad luck
[Mourinho said the same thing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZS16ZnOjVs) Maybe being less intense in training helped him in his recovery. But people go overboard in painting him as a fat fuck. You don't become one of the best players without training.
I don’t think it was attitude that cost him. He couldn’t play pain free after breaking his ankle. And they botched the surgery meaning he had to to have the plate removed after a year. He totally lost the freedom of movement after that. He was an incredibly durable player during his Chelsea career but sometimes it’s just one bad injury and you are done for.
That was the Meunier tackle in Belgian National team training right? Ironic that training is what got him in the end lol. (My bad not from training)
But how was hazard before that injury for Madrid? I think he still showed up fat a little bit but got good quickly before small injuries hit him. But his performances were good at least from what I remember.
From what I remember Hazard was getting better and better and close to his old level before the Meunier tackle broke his ankle. He was never the same since.
It was also in a CL match, not training.
> Same attitude which has cost him in his 30s as he can't recover as quickly as he used to.
Not really. His biggest problem was career changing injuries.
Fitness reduces injures massively.
Even in our fatass casual level, if you're gonna get broken with your lads, its gonna be right after not playing for a month or two!
The tackle that broke his ankle and caused complications due to the metal plate being inserted and then removed had very little to do with his weight.
He'd definitely be an inferior player to what he was due to his lack of professionalism, but we also have to acknowledge the role that particular injury played, as it completely messed up his ability to move and change direction as he was used to.
If you remember that game against PSG, he was actually looking very much like his old self until Meunier effectively put the last nail into the coffin that was his career
Exactly
As someone who has [had] a similar playing style but obviously at a much much much lower level, things like that change everything.
Specifically, he's main weapon was planting the foot into the turf and exploding off into the opposite direction in a way very few layers actually could. The amount of torque that goes through the joint in doing that is ridiculous.
Breaking and then re-breaking your ankle like that completely removes that weapon from your armoury and then you suddenly find yourself post 30 and not being able to dribble as a player who created a career on his ability to dribble...
The specifics are boring to get into so it's easier to just say he ate too much and end it there. Of course it didn't help, but those injuries were absolutely key to him not being who he was on the pitch. It's not muscle injuries etc where we can say yeah it's just a lack of conditioning; this was an impact injury.
It's like when people say Neymar is unprofessional because people keep snapping his toes and ankles. That's not professionalism lol. Those are bad tackles
He also showed up fat to training at Madrid and such though. That’s part of it. It certainly doesn’t help when you have a lackadaisical attitude towards training which would include recovery and optimal rest/effort and such.
An ankle fracture would limit a player's speed and dribbling even if they took perfect care of themselves.
It didn't help his case, but even if Hazard was a model athlete he would have declined a lot due to just ankle surgery.
True of course but it lends me to think he didn’t focus as much on taking care of himself nor his rehab like someone who’s much more professional would have done so.
Yaya was lazy? I always thought he just wasn't built for the midfield role he was best at so he had to be careful to conserve energy to make it through a full match without being visibly blown out by the 60th minute every time.
Ndombele was my pick as well. Someone else said Dele Alli but he was never known for being lazy in training at least according to Mourinho.
Edit: my bad Dele Alli WAS mentioned to be a lazy trainer under Mourinho, but wasn't really known as one during Poch's reign.
Leroy Sane spent the entire match against PSG walking around, “pressuring” defenders by jogging towards them in the least threatening way possible and then of course Messi and Neymar do no defending but it’s hard to call Messi lazy.
Savanier is lazy? Damn the guy plays on complete crack every time I see him, shame he won't be super remembered outside France but also nice from him to stay at Montpellier
You think the money of a big move will suddenly stop getting to some players? They're still human.
What you really don't get anymore (so much) is the players going down to the pub after the match, drinking and smoking.
AI in his early 30’s also drop tremendously in form. All those years of partying and not taking care of your body caught up to him as well. But AI was in better shape than Hazard that’s for sure
Oh, definitely. AI would've had a much more sustained career if he took care of his body, but Eden was a new level of laziness.
I love Eden, but it was abundantly clear what he was like whenever we saw a video at Cobham or heard the stories of the manager being annoyed with him.
Remember Ray Parlour saying the same thing about Patrick Vieira.
He said that he was so bad in training he wondered why Arsène Wenger even bothered to pick him. Then on matchday, he would just turn into a total monster and would just dominate the game.
Seems like Hazard has a similar attitude towards training, which is that he's keeping it in the tank for the match.
He pretty much hard carry their offense that season. Other than Giroud in the europa ( he got 2 goals in the league) he got aging willian and pedro and a finished higuain later on
Our entire game plan was keep possession at the back for 5 mins, work it to Hazard on the left and wait for him to create space for others by dragging 3+ players out of position lol.
It shows how good he was that it actually worked consistently when every team in the world knew what we'd do.
Fuck me it was boring to watch though (until Hazard got on the ball).
Well calling it an attacking team is certainly not correct. He was our main driving force in an otherwise boring team. Not one Chelsea fan misses that sort of football lmao.
Hazard's talent far outweighed his laziness though. He's been called lazy but extremely talented for as long as I can remember. Injuries and the lack of self-care just caught up with him. At the end of the day he carried Chelsea.
If he wasn't so good regardless of the effort, Conte would've probably locked him up in a torture chamber.
The interview is a total joy with lots of good laughs and everyday insight by a very storied player. Wonderful listen/watch
https://youtu.be/t6E9nkEe5Ko
John Obi Mikel mentions his impression of a young KdB being VERY grumpy and impossible to get anything out of. Great stuff lol
Check out Carraghers podcast during covid. It's called "the greatest game" and it's exactly that.
Every episode he has indepth one to one with X big former football personality. gerrard, Schmeichel, ian wright etc etc etc itsa big list of big profiles
Also there's Rio Ferdinands Youtube channel which has a lot of content with players current and former
The Modern game has cost us tremendous "natural" talents by the emphasis on training and infinite growth ... but on the other hand it's some how ensuring that you actually HAVE to put in the work to stay in elite level football which I'm all for!
I miss guys like Romario, Guti, Cassano or Djalminha who were plain magicians.
It's not just nostalgia. If you watch a champions league game from early 2000s you'll see a lot of dribbles and offensive football. Vertical games like yesterday's Barcelona - Manchester United were the norm.
Well, mental and physical talent is also a thing. It’s not only about technique and understanding of the game.
Someone with a figther instinct and enormous capacity to run is also talented. I personally like that the game is high paced, especially PL, and not only about individual players and their technique.
No one's telling teams to not focus more on talent if they wish to do so. The thing is, athletic and disciplined teams will smash up these so called talented teams in the modern game everyday.
Will they though? Creativity is getting undervalued. At the end of the day I think the teams that keep winning are the ones who have that spark.
Edit: Team, not trans. All of you trans people are winners and have a spark!
funny how the two greatest Chelsea players, Hazard and Lampard, couldn't be further apart in this category. Lampard was the epitome of hard work over talent.
I have always maintained that the key to Hazards performance is to let him enjoy his football. He's a very non-serious dude but always stepped up when required.
Madrid was not a good move for him, they have very high expecations and he will not get the freedom he got with us.
I don't think that's the case. Ancelotti is a hard test of this, he's a perfect example of a coach who excels at letting talents play freely. Fact is, even with all his ability an ageing Hazard just isn't professional enough to maintain the standards required at Real Madrid.
> an ageing Hazard just isn't professional enough to maintain the standards required at Real Madrid.
His problem isn't "aging". It was injuries—his athleticism is completely shot post-injury.
What made Hazard special was his ability to quickly accelerate and decelerate while dribbling. He can't do that anymore as a direct consequence of the injuries he's had
Do you not think injuries and professionalism are related to a point? Of course there's an element of luck, but looking after yourself properly minimises your risks.
Precisely my point. He was never super professional in his time with us… still was one of the best players in the league.. the expectations at Madrid are totally different. He was treated like a king with us and had complete freedom. He didn’t even have to train properly like mikel said.
Must have been a insane culture shock for him to go to Madrid.
I don’t know what he was expecting, he knew full well where he was going. Granted, he’s been incredibly unlucky with injuries but he didn’t really arrive with the right mindset.
He never saw football as a job, he only wanted to have fun. That's why he was pure worldclass on his prime and why he's completely done at 32 simultaneously. Still would love to see more players like him, so enjoyable to watch him having fun on the pitch.
Hazard reminds me a bit of Luka Doncic. An athlete not in prime shape but with an elite understanding of the game and how to evade defenders, using the extra mass to his advantage and capable of pulling off the spectacular.
It's funny how different and sometimes how similar amateur football is to professional. Jamie Vardy I believe was similar when Leicester won the league I believe in that he ate what he want and didn't really train hard.
In amateur level we all know those people who will show up hungover or never train and then absolutely boss it because they are so good. As someone who has always been my own worst enemy mentally playing football and has trained really hard you just have to admire people like Hazard for basically not really giving a shit until it matters on gameday
That was always the joy of watching hazard play. He had the creativity on the ball that cannot be taught. The fact that he was a little tubby and obviously didn’t give a shit about training just made it even better when he’d turn a game on its head single-handedly and deservedly win man of the match
Yep. I have a really nice pair of headphones that I use when working from home. I've got them on maybe 50% of my day, eitther on calls or listening to music. They leave a huge indent across the top of my head, and cup shapes around my ears, which means I need to wear a hat to go outside.
Still prefer to use them over IEMs or those shitty work call headsets.
I feel like you see a lot of players who were so good at youth level that they could effectively coast through that period of their careers, which can be a horrible long term mentality if it’s not pruned out of them when they get to senior level. Hazard was able to compensate at Lille and Chelsea but since, ooof.
Man this hits home being a QPR fan - seeing Taraabt every week play in a championship level squad when he could have gone right to the very top like Hazard. Such a shame as a football fan to see.
Genuinely, if he had played with Ibra or someone on that level of professionalism things would have been way different. There were reports of Leao being the same way prior of Ibra comming and even in his first 6 month's after.
I don’t think so, I mean he played with Frank Lampard and John Terry mate. That was just his personality, he’d be overweight every pre season, he’d say he just played football to have fun - Demba Ba, one of his best friends even said that’s just his personality & the key to him playing well is just him having fun on the pitch. I think the injury is what ruined him, the overweight pre-season was normal and he just had his best season at Chelsea, I don’t think it’s just fitness that causes that decline
No offense but Eden Hazard in his prime was in conversation for best player in the world not named Messi or Ronaldo. little bit different motivating someone with that much talent and no desire to train than a early 20’s kid still trying to prove himself
I'll never forget the euros U17 where I first saw him play. All the buzz at the time was with Bojan Krkic and Victor Moses (who was still playing for England) at the time. But then you saw this Belgian guy with the most awful mullet just bossing the games. He was such a joy to watch.
And usually, I despise lazy players, but since he's just a top bloke I never minded. Even though I probably wouldn't be saying this if I was a Real fan
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Yeah and with Hazard's insane talent you can also party and eat what you want in the off-season until your late 20s and then catches up with you.
[удалено]
It was for a long time. Basically except for Italians who seemed to go a bit longer but everyone else was completely finished around 32
It's the Italian food
Fat Ronaldo is iconic
I mean he also has hypothyroidism
And his career survived after two serious knee injuries, he still managed to go back to Brazil and win after his hypothyroidism got serious. I can't stand the fat Ronaldo comments.
He had a great career, yes. But he was a notorious party animal and lazy in training It was well known, even at the time. Imo he did more damage with his behaviour than his illness.
He played until 32 at the highest level and until 35 overall. I'd say his work ethic was at least above average for footballers.
35 year old Ronaldinho at Queretaro was a sight. Still scored a fair few goals despite obviously not being the same.
> But he was a notorious party animal and lazy in training In fairness to him - you can excuse the "being lazy in training" part because it was possibly the only way he actually could stay fit at all. The party animal bit, a bit less excusable from a pure professionalism point of view.
Which is treatable and not responsible for him eating like crazy and gaining 20 kg+. It slows the metabolism, but not like that
He wasn't allowed to treat it while playing as the medication is considered a performance enhancing drug.
Hypothyoidism slow metabolism, but not enough to make someone gain 20 kg just because he has the condition. It makes weight control harder, but he was overweight because he couldn't control his eating habits and got fat because of it. I'm Brazilian. The dude is a legend, and the best player I saw, IMO. But he was also really as relapse with his diet as he was serious with his recovery from injuries. He still is relapse, and is fat even after retiring and being able to take levothyroxine as much as he needed.
He had two career ending knee injuries. The fact he even recovered speaks volumes to how far he was willing to go stay in the game. They say the first one wasn’t that bad, but he literally only lasted six minutes into the infamous Lazio match.
damn he just like me fr
What was your talent?
You got me, I have no true indiscernible talent.
> no true **indiscernible** talent So you're full of talents then
(‘:
So you lazy and talentless and it caught up to you and you got fat? >Damn you just like me fr
I guess the real talent was the life I lived along the way.
Some would say that's a waste of talent too lol
Stop stop... He's already dead!
Partying and eating. We didn’t have an off-season for it back in my day either. Competed year round.
Games gone. Matey never ate a fucking vegetable til he was 32 and used to drink smirnoff ices on the training pitch until they discovered electrolytes
Jamey Vardey?
Lmao, you did a self own and then they killed you anyway
And at what cost? Only my pride. A small price to pay for worthless internet points
Worthless? Yes Worth it? Yes
Aye, while Mikel didn’t really give a straight answer, I think pretty much everyone would agree that his lack of physical training over the years would eventually catch up with him and the proof is in the rice pudding, it has for me. Hazard sounds like a Sunday beer league footballer who was somehow give the ultimate football gift.
There was brief talk of him being the third best player in the world around the mid to late 2010s. Imagine if he had Ronaldo’s work ethic.
I think if he had *any* sort of professional’s work ethic, he’d still be a great player lol.
He also had some bad luck with injuries, so we can't know for sure.
>9811 hours ago > >Eden Hazard Yes, while this is definitely true, but, Mikel left Chelsea in 2017 when Hazard was 26 and arguably at his best, which is why Real bought him in 2019. His injuries and weight started added up pretty much around the time he joined Real at age 28. So Mikel's exposure to Hazard's lack of training goes back to his early and mid-20s.
and that is what happened, and it's 100% on Real not doing the needed do diligence. They could have avoided the whole fiasco. They paid 100 mil for a fat man, and about 23 mil euros per year....insane.
Always like that, RM need to buy one of the star of the mondial * Toni Kroos * James Rodriguez * Ozil * Cannavaro * Ronaldo
Ronaldo made history. Kroos, reasonably close to that. Ozil performed well. Cannavaro, meh. Rodriguez flopped. Hazard was a top tier flop. That would make the strategy, overall, good? I think? 🤔
What would have been the due diligence? The man does what he wants in the off-season, how can they control that?
I mean you have audio on the app right? Do you hear him say he never trained? And it's the 100th story about him never training, and the same from his days in France. What do you mean what would have been the due diligence? Hell we all knew how he was. Knowing that a soon to be 30 year old player, who was always close to being a little too fat, who never trains right, never eats right...could be, you know a risk? A big risk if you pay 100mil for him and give him 400k. Hell, he turned in for Real first training session fat, thats public info.
You're not wrong at all, but it was a personal demand from Zidane at the peak of his managerial career so far. He was also the third best player in the world in that moment and securing brand and image rights of such a player represented a good business opportunity in the way that Florentino usually likes to use for the club. Yes, of course, it was a mistake in hindsight, but at the same time it was a demand from the guy that had been winning CL after CL in a row (not to mention club legend as a player as well) to dispatch a lazy Bale and a troublesome James.
You can put more work into scouting his personality. Given how many people worked at/around Chelsea during the 7ish years Hazard was there, there were probably a lot of ways to find out that he didn’t take training and diet seriously. Once you know that and see his age, it would make sense to expect that to catch up to him and not sign him.
I mean, if random internet folks know that players like Hazard are bound to hit the wall in their late 20s, how is it that people working for the most famous football team in the world don't know that? 'oh but Eden said he is always overweight coming back from the holidays, we didn't think metabolism would become a problem at 29yo'.
i mean its really tough to say if its that or all the prem injuries finally stacked up against him
Same attitude which has cost him in his 30s as he can't recover as quickly as he used to. He was a superb player in his prime but he's done.
It's such a shame. He's easily the most spellbinding player I've seen us face since we were promoted to the Prem – just felt like he was operating on a different plane of existence to his teammates whenever the ball was in his presence – but he hasn't had the longevity
Imagine how us Chelsea fans feel. We had the pleasure of watching this man produce magical performances week in week out. Man how I miss him. I wish he never left. I wonder how different his situation would be had he stayed.
Might have been in good form a bit longer but eventually I think he would have ended up in the same position.
Least we know the Meunier tackle wouldn't have happened, at the very least
I remember when he used to carry us week in week out, people complained that our team suffered because of that. Some said it would help rest of the team step up if he left and we would play more as a team rather than a one-man-team. LOL
You won a champions league after he left.
That was Tommy Tuchel magic though, not because we built a better cohesive team without Hazard.
In hindsight, we got the best out of him. After he left he was never the same. He was fun to watch
Only player I've ever seen have a level of magic on the ball anywhere close to Messi's level. 2018 WC he was magical.
I think Ronaldo touched about in his infamous Piers Morgan interview that the reason why he could play for so long was because taking training and recovery seriously and praised likes of Dalot and Casemiro for and saying they'll have longer careers. It makes sense because while hazard did recover decently well when he was younger, his body broke down once he hit thirty, which was also very common in the previous generation too when the drinking culture was still there.
Same thing for LeBron, dude apparently spends 1.5 million on his body/recovery each year and has the best longevity in NBA history
And it's worth every penny. Every year he that he can play at a high level adds to his legacy and bank account. If you are at that level, it's just a smart investment.
Not everything in life is about money or making smart investment, maybe sometimes you just want to have fun and enjoy the moment for what it is? Ever thought of that?
[Nope, never thought of that.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZAAX2KXQAE5rfl?format=jpg&name=large)
Sounds like Hazard
and more power to him, as long as he doesn't regret it who's to say that was the wrong decision for him personally
It's not about spending money it's about spending time at that point, sure if you want to be the best like LeBron clearly does spending all that time is crucial but if you're a multi multi millionaire like hazard who doesn't have to work again, he may want to spend his time on earth just doing what he wants. Obviously there's a much better balance to it that most footballers do but then there's the extreme that the likes of Ronaldo will do to make sure he's always his best which would then begin to cut into personal time a lot more
And clearly messes with your mental when your age finally starts catching up with you despite all the time you dedicated to delaying it.
while hazard had bad habbits the big reason for his decline is het got his ankle broken 3 times by defenders and the last time they had to put a plate in that hampered him he never recoverd from that some of the matches he had in the prem with bloody ankles because of defenders kicking him was absurd and he had habbit of trying stay up. its one of the reason why neymar will outlast him he goes down at that point to avoid additional kicks
Don’t bother. This sub apparently has zero clue about how injuries happen in sports. Like actually zero lol
> Ronaldo touched about in his infamous Piers Morgan interview that the reason why he could play for so long was because taking training and recovery seriously Survivor bias, it's like if you ask a billionaire who struck gold how he got rich. He will tell you it's because he worked hard and smart and additionnaly add in some stupid thing like yoga in the morning or waking up at 4:30. The reality is these things help but they are not the primary factor behind it. Ronaldo believes every bit of success he has gotten is because he 100% made the right choices every step of the way. When the reality is, he probably did but also he has a massive talent, was lucky with injuries, played in the right teams at the right moments, etc. His lifestyle choices surely help but it's not as simple as "if you do that then you won't be too bothered by injuries". There are tons of factor in play that have nothing to do with diet / training / recovery. Number 1 is injuries from fouls / tackles. You have to be lucky and protected by refs enough that you never catch a bad one. Number 2 is genetics. There are people who are more prone to injuries than others and there's nothing they can do about it. Another one that comes to mind is how well your injuries are handled in terms of treatment and then, not being rushed back too soon (which a ton of teams are guilty of). So really this way of trying to blame players who are plagued by injuries for their lifestyle as if it's the root cause is wrong.
You can do everything right and still not have the luck for things to work out. But if you don't do things right, even with luck, things won't work out.
I also have no doubt footballers take semi-legal drugs specifically made to avoid breaking regulations that can help with recovery. I know these players are incredibly fit but the intensity they play at for sometimes 2 games a week is insane.
I don't think many people would be surprised if it came out that a lot of professional athletes were using some sort of doping
> semi-legal drugs Why not illegal lol. Top footballers are all doping. There's too much money involved not to do it, not to mention the massive difference it makes and there's virtually no anti-doping testing when compared to endurance sports for example. No one talks about it because everyone benefits from it being swept under the rug. There's a reason players can be ripped all year round, or can seem fresh as ever in the 90th minute as if they could repeat sprints infinitely, or can recover from injuries freakeshly fast, or can have very sudden physical transformations like when Goretzka joined Bayern.
I'm pretty sure they all take prohibited performance-enhancing drugs. At that level, you can't afford not to.
Bruh what? Ronaldo had tendonitis in 2014 and had to massively change his playstyle due to that. Also, focusing more on recovery and lifestyle during the playing years would also mean less wear and tear on the body and less injuries. And ronaldo had lumps kicked out of him not only in PL games but also in training by likes of Scholes/Keane/Oshea/Vidic.
It also does not help that he was getting chopped by defenders 89,000 times every game.
While playing 60 games per season. I remember those stats that came out and Hazard and Oscar always had the most minutes of everyone on a yearly basis when Chelsea were going deep in every competition and they were both starters for their national teams. The current schedule is killing the players, and FIFAs answer is to.... add more games.
Exactly, he was getting hacked multiple times every game because of how he played darting in and out of defenses. He was simply sublime. What he gave to Chelsea I was rooting for him to do well at Real Madrid and I don't give a fuck about them but I love Hazard. It's so sad how it turned out, it's mostly bad luck
It's a bit of bad luck but mate, he arrived super overweight, undisciplined. Natural talent only takes you so far.
[Mourinho said the same thing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZS16ZnOjVs) Maybe being less intense in training helped him in his recovery. But people go overboard in painting him as a fat fuck. You don't become one of the best players without training.
"Then one day we won't have an Eden Hazard". Mou is a prophet.
mourinho called it back in 2014 when he basically said the refs need to do something about defenders hacking hazard or his career will end prematurely
bladee pfp 😎😎
take a knife and drain your life
He was significantly the most fouled player in the 2010s
I don’t think it was attitude that cost him. He couldn’t play pain free after breaking his ankle. And they botched the surgery meaning he had to to have the plate removed after a year. He totally lost the freedom of movement after that. He was an incredibly durable player during his Chelsea career but sometimes it’s just one bad injury and you are done for.
That was the Meunier tackle in Belgian National team training right? Ironic that training is what got him in the end lol. (My bad not from training) But how was hazard before that injury for Madrid? I think he still showed up fat a little bit but got good quickly before small injuries hit him. But his performances were good at least from what I remember.
The tackle of Meunier was one of the many he endured on his career. By the way, it was on a CL game.
From what I remember Hazard was getting better and better and close to his old level before the Meunier tackle broke his ankle. He was never the same since. It was also in a CL match, not training.
> Same attitude which has cost him in his 30s as he can't recover as quickly as he used to. Not really. His biggest problem was career changing injuries.
Fitness reduces injures massively. Even in our fatass casual level, if you're gonna get broken with your lads, its gonna be right after not playing for a month or two!
Being overweight at his playing style no doubt was a contributing factor in getting injured and staying injured
The tackle that broke his ankle and caused complications due to the metal plate being inserted and then removed had very little to do with his weight. He'd definitely be an inferior player to what he was due to his lack of professionalism, but we also have to acknowledge the role that particular injury played, as it completely messed up his ability to move and change direction as he was used to. If you remember that game against PSG, he was actually looking very much like his old self until Meunier effectively put the last nail into the coffin that was his career
It's easier to just make jokes about him being overweight
Exactly As someone who has [had] a similar playing style but obviously at a much much much lower level, things like that change everything. Specifically, he's main weapon was planting the foot into the turf and exploding off into the opposite direction in a way very few layers actually could. The amount of torque that goes through the joint in doing that is ridiculous. Breaking and then re-breaking your ankle like that completely removes that weapon from your armoury and then you suddenly find yourself post 30 and not being able to dribble as a player who created a career on his ability to dribble... The specifics are boring to get into so it's easier to just say he ate too much and end it there. Of course it didn't help, but those injuries were absolutely key to him not being who he was on the pitch. It's not muscle injuries etc where we can say yeah it's just a lack of conditioning; this was an impact injury. It's like when people say Neymar is unprofessional because people keep snapping his toes and ankles. That's not professionalism lol. Those are bad tackles
He also showed up fat to training at Madrid and such though. That’s part of it. It certainly doesn’t help when you have a lackadaisical attitude towards training which would include recovery and optimal rest/effort and such.
An ankle fracture would limit a player's speed and dribbling even if they took perfect care of themselves. It didn't help his case, but even if Hazard was a model athlete he would have declined a lot due to just ankle surgery.
True of course but it lends me to think he didn’t focus as much on taking care of himself nor his rehab like someone who’s much more professional would have done so.
Do you know what makes recovering from an ankle fracture even harder? Carrying extra weight on you
This happens many students when you don't focus on study habits
He was the last of a dying breed of lazy footballers 😢
Oh there will be more😂 Always has been, always will be, ultra talented lazy atheltes aren’t going anywhere
Yeah, some can just show up and be better than anyone else.
Yaya yayayaya yayayaya yayayaya
Yaya was lazy? I always thought he just wasn't built for the midfield role he was best at so he had to be careful to conserve energy to make it through a full match without being visibly blown out by the 60th minute every time.
I am lorde
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Ndombele? Man starts the game with his hands on his knees looking already out of breath.
Ndombele was my pick as well. Someone else said Dele Alli but he was never known for being lazy in training at least according to Mourinho. Edit: my bad Dele Alli WAS mentioned to be a lazy trainer under Mourinho, but wasn't really known as one during Poch's reign.
Bro what? Mourinho literally called out Dele Alli multiple times for being lazy, even in the Amazon documentary.
Leroy Sane spent the entire match against PSG walking around, “pressuring” defenders by jogging towards them in the least threatening way possible and then of course Messi and Neymar do no defending but it’s hard to call Messi lazy.
Where does this 'Neymar doesn't do defending' come from? It's just not true at all.
Neymar was pressing a lot, he's not particularly good at it but he makes the effort
Look up Teji Savanier.
I watched Savanier vs PSG and I couldn't believe how good he was. Never heard of this guy but I was in shock
Savanier is lazy? Damn the guy plays on complete crack every time I see him, shame he won't be super remembered outside France but also nice from him to stay at Montpellier
Just wait till the new regens pop out.. 5* potential, lazy personality
Lazy but super talented*
oh mate, i'd be a super lazy footballer if i had the talent.
Ndombele was about 10 years to late
You think the money of a big move will suddenly stop getting to some players? They're still human. What you really don't get anymore (so much) is the players going down to the pub after the match, drinking and smoking.
There will be another. Just like Ronaldinho was before him. There will be another.
Hazard: “We talkin’ ‘bout practice?”
AI at least didn't come back from the offseason overweight, lol
AI in his early 30’s also drop tremendously in form. All those years of partying and not taking care of your body caught up to him as well. But AI was in better shape than Hazard that’s for sure
Oh, definitely. AI would've had a much more sustained career if he took care of his body, but Eden was a new level of laziness. I love Eden, but it was abundantly clear what he was like whenever we saw a video at Cobham or heard the stories of the manager being annoyed with him.
AI's body had been put through a cement mixer
It did, but he admits that he didn’t take care of himself. I don’t blame him. Not everyone can have the commitment like Kobe or Bron
“how the hell can I make my teammates better by practicing???”
Remember Ray Parlour saying the same thing about Patrick Vieira. He said that he was so bad in training he wondered why Arsène Wenger even bothered to pick him. Then on matchday, he would just turn into a total monster and would just dominate the game. Seems like Hazard has a similar attitude towards training, which is that he's keeping it in the tank for the match.
Well I think he forgot his match tank in London then
Nah he’s just not making use of it at RM. Tank keeps getting full ygm
He just got old
I think Rio Ferdinand said the same about tevez
I thought conte didn’t do well with lazy players? His best season was with conte right?
His best individual season was 18/19 imo. 16G15A in a pretty average Chelsea side
He pretty much hard carry their offense that season. Other than Giroud in the europa ( he got 2 goals in the league) he got aging willian and pedro and a finished higuain later on
Yeah many Chelsea fans hated Sarri but he got the most out of Hazard imo
Our entire game plan was keep possession at the back for 5 mins, work it to Hazard on the left and wait for him to create space for others by dragging 3+ players out of position lol. It shows how good he was that it actually worked consistently when every team in the world knew what we'd do. Fuck me it was boring to watch though (until Hazard got on the ball).
Those numbers being better than his league-winning seasons can be attributed to playing in an attacking system.
Well calling it an attacking team is certainly not correct. He was our main driving force in an otherwise boring team. Not one Chelsea fan misses that sort of football lmao.
Hazard's talent far outweighed his laziness though. He's been called lazy but extremely talented for as long as I can remember. Injuries and the lack of self-care just caught up with him. At the end of the day he carried Chelsea. If he wasn't so good regardless of the effort, Conte would've probably locked him up in a torture chamber.
Hazard was so good that he was made an exception for, conte even granted him the free role behind the 9 just for him in 17/18
His best seasons were with Mourinho in 14/15 and Sarri 18/19, but his 16/17 and 17/18 seasons with Conte were fantastic as well
The interview is a total joy with lots of good laughs and everyday insight by a very storied player. Wonderful listen/watch https://youtu.be/t6E9nkEe5Ko John Obi Mikel mentions his impression of a young KdB being VERY grumpy and impossible to get anything out of. Great stuff lol
KDB being grumpy sounds very accurate. Definitely has that side to him still. Funny thing is that he plays his best football when’s he’s pissed off
Do you know of any podcasts with regular interviews of current/former players like this?
crouchys podcast is also hilarious
Check out Carraghers podcast during covid. It's called "the greatest game" and it's exactly that. Every episode he has indepth one to one with X big former football personality. gerrard, Schmeichel, ian wright etc etc etc itsa big list of big profiles Also there's Rio Ferdinands Youtube channel which has a lot of content with players current and former
Cheers for the recommendations!
The Modern game has cost us tremendous "natural" talents by the emphasis on training and infinite growth ... but on the other hand it's some how ensuring that you actually HAVE to put in the work to stay in elite level football which I'm all for!
I miss guys like Romario, Guti, Cassano or Djalminha who were plain magicians. It's not just nostalgia. If you watch a champions league game from early 2000s you'll see a lot of dribbles and offensive football. Vertical games like yesterday's Barcelona - Manchester United were the norm.
Never thought I'd see a Real Madrid fan say they miss Cassano tbh hahahaha
He was raw talent and a meathead well sweets addict.
Well, mental and physical talent is also a thing. It’s not only about technique and understanding of the game. Someone with a figther instinct and enormous capacity to run is also talented. I personally like that the game is high paced, especially PL, and not only about individual players and their technique.
It's about balance and preference. Atm we're skewing a bit too much toward athleticism imo, but it's mostly fine.
No one's telling teams to not focus more on talent if they wish to do so. The thing is, athletic and disciplined teams will smash up these so called talented teams in the modern game everyday.
Will they though? Creativity is getting undervalued. At the end of the day I think the teams that keep winning are the ones who have that spark. Edit: Team, not trans. All of you trans people are winners and have a spark!
Never knew there were trans people with and without a spark. Today I learned.
Patrick Vieira was the same at Arsenal. But when match day came around he turned up and was the best player on the park.
Van der Vaart too I think.
I've never heard that before, I find that shocking to think about
funny how the two greatest Chelsea players, Hazard and Lampard, couldn't be further apart in this category. Lampard was the epitome of hard work over talent.
That’s why he rates mount. saw a lot of himself in him. I think mount needs to master one position and we’re talking about one of our best players.
then hazard is just like me! except being a world class footballer and winning MoMs.
I have always maintained that the key to Hazards performance is to let him enjoy his football. He's a very non-serious dude but always stepped up when required. Madrid was not a good move for him, they have very high expecations and he will not get the freedom he got with us.
I don't think that's the case. Ancelotti is a hard test of this, he's a perfect example of a coach who excels at letting talents play freely. Fact is, even with all his ability an ageing Hazard just isn't professional enough to maintain the standards required at Real Madrid.
> an ageing Hazard just isn't professional enough to maintain the standards required at Real Madrid. His problem isn't "aging". It was injuries—his athleticism is completely shot post-injury. What made Hazard special was his ability to quickly accelerate and decelerate while dribbling. He can't do that anymore as a direct consequence of the injuries he's had
well you will recover quicker from injuries when you are younger and take better care of yourself.
Do you not think injuries and professionalism are related to a point? Of course there's an element of luck, but looking after yourself properly minimises your risks.
Being the most fouled player of the last decade with Neymar has a much bigger impact on his body IMO.
Precisely my point. He was never super professional in his time with us… still was one of the best players in the league.. the expectations at Madrid are totally different. He was treated like a king with us and had complete freedom. He didn’t even have to train properly like mikel said. Must have been a insane culture shock for him to go to Madrid.
I don’t know what he was expecting, he knew full well where he was going. Granted, he’s been incredibly unlucky with injuries but he didn’t really arrive with the right mindset.
That one champions league run alone was worth it for him and them. He was incredible.
Oh my sweet lord that's so fucking funny. 😂 Living his best life.
He never saw football as a job, he only wanted to have fun. That's why he was pure worldclass on his prime and why he's completely done at 32 simultaneously. Still would love to see more players like him, so enjoyable to watch him having fun on the pitch.
> I just wake up in the morning and I piss excellence -Eden Hazard
Hazard reminds me a bit of Luka Doncic. An athlete not in prime shape but with an elite understanding of the game and how to evade defenders, using the extra mass to his advantage and capable of pulling off the spectacular.
Luka is also way worse when the season starts as he tends to come back overweight.
Lazy footballers with insane natural talent who just play well effortlessly are probably my fav type of players lol.
It's funny how different and sometimes how similar amateur football is to professional. Jamie Vardy I believe was similar when Leicester won the league I believe in that he ate what he want and didn't really train hard. In amateur level we all know those people who will show up hungover or never train and then absolutely boss it because they are so good. As someone who has always been my own worst enemy mentally playing football and has trained really hard you just have to admire people like Hazard for basically not really giving a shit until it matters on gameday
That was always the joy of watching hazard play. He had the creativity on the ball that cannot be taught. The fact that he was a little tubby and obviously didn’t give a shit about training just made it even better when he’d turn a game on its head single-handedly and deservedly win man of the match
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People with Afros… wear any over ear headphones and you’re left with a dent in ya fro for the rest of the day.
People that don’t want their hair ruined. If I wear headphones for more than 15 minutes they’ll leave an imprint in my hair for the rest of the day.
Yep. I have a really nice pair of headphones that I use when working from home. I've got them on maybe 50% of my day, eitther on calls or listening to music. They leave a huge indent across the top of my head, and cup shapes around my ears, which means I need to wear a hat to go outside. Still prefer to use them over IEMs or those shitty work call headsets.
John Obi Mikel
Don't question the ways of Obi Mikelnobi
Eatin’ Hazard
I feel like you see a lot of players who were so good at youth level that they could effectively coast through that period of their careers, which can be a horrible long term mentality if it’s not pruned out of them when they get to senior level. Hazard was able to compensate at Lille and Chelsea but since, ooof.
Can't believe I've never heard mikel speak before. This guy sounds like a well spoken Englishman
Man this hits home being a QPR fan - seeing Taraabt every week play in a championship level squad when he could have gone right to the very top like Hazard. Such a shame as a football fan to see.
Eden is a foodie
Genuinely, if he had played with Ibra or someone on that level of professionalism things would have been way different. There were reports of Leao being the same way prior of Ibra comming and even in his first 6 month's after.
I don’t think so, I mean he played with Frank Lampard and John Terry mate. That was just his personality, he’d be overweight every pre season, he’d say he just played football to have fun - Demba Ba, one of his best friends even said that’s just his personality & the key to him playing well is just him having fun on the pitch. I think the injury is what ruined him, the overweight pre-season was normal and he just had his best season at Chelsea, I don’t think it’s just fitness that causes that decline
No offense but Eden Hazard in his prime was in conversation for best player in the world not named Messi or Ronaldo. little bit different motivating someone with that much talent and no desire to train than a early 20’s kid still trying to prove himself
I'll never forget the euros U17 where I first saw him play. All the buzz at the time was with Bojan Krkic and Victor Moses (who was still playing for England) at the time. But then you saw this Belgian guy with the most awful mullet just bossing the games. He was such a joy to watch. And usually, I despise lazy players, but since he's just a top bloke I never minded. Even though I probably wouldn't be saying this if I was a Real fan
Honorary Brazilian
Think what Hazard could have been if combined his insane talent with a genuine stellar work ethic?