Chelsea FC’s talisman midfielder Eden Hazard has been compared in recent years to two stars of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Some claim that the Belgian is threatening the duopoly at the top of the game but the comparisons are simply unfair as those two are once in a generation talents who also play vastly different styles of football.

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Hazard spoke on the comparisons a few weeks ago and to put it simply, he does not think he can ever get to that level. He admits that he does not have the killer instinct in front of goal that Messi has or the selfishness that Ronaldo is famous for.

Eden Hazard told Sport/Foot Magazine:

“I ask myself what I can do to become like Messi and Ronaldo, and score 50 or 60 goals in a season. I try but I realise that I will never be a true scorer. It is not in me. It is mainly mental. Sometimes I still think after a goal, ‘that’s enough’. I’m not in search of records like some other players. If I can score between 15 and 20 goals each season, I will be very happy. I’m at a peak of my career but I want to become even better every day. I’m not there yet.”

So what can we make of those comments other than feel confused by a player showing an apparent lack of ambition to be the best? To be fair to Hazard he never asked for those comparisons. He never came out and told us all to compare him to the two best players in the world. The comparisons are just a symptom of the world that we live in where players are constantly compared to others whether they are active players or not.

Messi has to live with comparisons to Maradona, every creative player at Chelsea FC is compared to Gianfranco Zola, and every new winger at Manchester United is compared to Cristiano. Rather than appreciate the players for what they are and enjoy the spectacle they put on, we must nitpick every move they make and compare them to others. The Ronaldo vs. Messi rages on and on with no apparent end when simply appreciating their talent would make for a much better and livelier discussion.

As for Hazard, as Twitter user and long-time Chelsea FC fan @SidCelery proclaims, Messi or Ronaldo are not the players we should be comparing our star to anyway:

Talk of Ronaldo or Messi has always been stupid. An obsession with the wrong people. Should be looking at Ribery & Robben. — Sid Celery (@sidcelery) September 2, 2015

The reasoning behind that is obvious. Messi is often deployed as a center forward for Barcelona and Ronaldo masquerades as a winger and has fooled wide players around the world in to thinking they too can score 50 goals in a season. They are both the focal point of their teams’ attacks but they act as the tip of the sword and the finishers of moves while Hazard is often the creator.

Our young Belgian has shown a nose for goal and has shown that he can create and finish moves on his own but he is often isolated out wide where he can take advantage of space and one-on-one matchups with fullbacks. He is an entirely different player than either of the La Liga giants and as Sid pointed out he should be more often compared to players like Ribery or Robben.

In their best club seasons they have scored 23 and 19 goals respectively and Hazard has scored 17 and 19 in his best seasons with Chelsea. 20 goals is a realistic goal for any wide player and that is not taking in to account the goals they create for their teammates by taking on wingers and sending crosses in to the box.

While it would be nice for Hazard to develop in to a goalscorer like Ronaldo or Messi but as he said it himself, it is just not in his mentality. There are times when the team would be better served by him being more selfish and aggressive in front of goal but you cannot force a player to be something that he is not. Chelsea does not need Hazard to be Messi or Ronaldo for them to win more titles, they just need him to be the best Eden Hazard he can be.

That means taking over games by the scruff of the neck, imposing his will on opposing fullbacks, and stretching out defenses with his pace and trickery. He finally has a winger opposite him in Pedro who can do the same to defenses and that should take even more pressure off his shoulders. Robben and Ribery have been Bayern’s dynamic duo for the better part of six years and now Chelsea have a pair of players who can do similar things to opposing defenses.