Welcome

We all know Hazard is a great player, however recently I was inspired to write this post after seeing a topic on r/chelseafc talking about what makes him such a good player. Things such as speed, low center of gravity, dribbling and speed all came up in droves - However I thought his greatest attribute wasn't even mentioned, Eden Hazard dissects situations and diagnoses plays incredibly quickly. For a player who has so many dribbles in every game he nearly never goes into a corner and loses the ball and he knows when to give up on a play, that is to say win a foul.

I wanted to choose a play which demonstrates his footballing IQ simply and effectively so I chose one of my favorite Chelsea goals this season, John Terry's finish vs Maribor. HERE is a video

Defensive marking







Here we can see the defensive scheme, the defender on the left has Hazard, the left center back has Fabregas, the other centre back is tracking John Terry's run in a zonal sense aiming to cut out any through balls/crosses and the right back is running with JT. The two right sided defenders are responsible for the space in behind them while the left sided defenders are also in control of their men as they are matched up 1 to 1.

Attacking runs

And here is the play from an attacking point of view, Fabregas has just changed his run from inside to out, JT is making a beeline for the box and Hazard is faced with three options. This is where Hazard has to recognize everything that is on view in these two pictures, both what his fellow teammates are doing and what the defenders scheme is. There is a large pocket of space in behind but they still have men over with more coming back.

Now lets examine the three options he has

Option one - The Bad.

This is by far his worst option in the current circumstances but it is the one most players especially those with the pace and dribbling ability that Hazard has would make. Here Hazard dribbles wide right, more than likely he beats his man but then he is left with two problems.

1. John Terry still is covered by two men in the box, and he is likely going to be arriving too slowly for Hazard to deliver a good first time ball.

2. Cesc would have had to check his run back to the inside, this allows the defence to keep the same coverage they previously had keeping them organized and stopping any confusion among the defenders. They still have the two danger men man marked with the target for all crosses etc. covered by two men.

The most likely outcome from this is in 95% of situations would be a hung up cross to the back post for JT to attack - Which is unlikely to result in a goal.

Option 2 - The Meh.

This option is a slightly more potent threat however it would depend on Hazard's ability to beat two men and get space for a shot with a third rapidly getting back - in other words not ideal.

In this situation Hazard cuts across the defense taking one man off JT so he can cover Hazard as a type of sweeper, the left back would be able to pass Hazard off to his neighboring center back and track Fabregas' run. This leaves Hazard to try and beat the two men (Those circled in black) by himself and relatively quickly as he has a defender chasing from behind. This is because Fabregas has been taken out of the play by the left back and would not be involved unless play is recycled and Terry's side of the pitch has been narrowed thus rendering him inconsequential. They both become decoy runners to keep their markers away from the ball. Hazard would have to find some magic to score from this position.

Option 3 - The Brilliant.

Hazard however chooses the third option to run straight at the left back

What effect does this have?

Eden Hazard manages to draw the attention of 4 or 5 defenders allowing the following move to take place. By drawing these defenders he accomplishes two things

1. He allows Fabregas to overlap unmarked, none of the players marking Hazard can move or Hazard would have a clear path to goal / A one on one with the last man

2. He causes John Terry's second marker to split men, He should be tracking back and marking the area infront of the goal however he is concerned at Hazard's advances down the right and is caught ball watching slightly. His two conflicting paths of action are represented by the grey lines, and in the end he does neither very well.



John Terry is now one on one at the back post with Fabregas overlapping freely. His decision to run at his man opened up the attack which looked fairly under control from a Maribor standpoint a few moments ago.

The pass

Also incredibly important in this goal was the timing of the pass, if Hazard had released the ball as soon as Fabregas overlapped the left back would have been able to put greater pressure on the cross as Fabregas would have needed an extra touch to get into crossing position.



However Hazard delays the pass - Again this has two effects

1. It allows Fabregas to get alongside him allowing a quick cross

2. It allows Terry to get into a dangerous position, without this delay Fabregas would have had to either wait to cross the ball or hung the ball to the back post which is a far lower percentage cross.

We can also clearly see the defender (In grey circle) still has his eyes on Hazard rather than his man and the space infront of the keeper this is vital.

Turning a 3v6 attack into a 2v1 attack

Here we can see how Hazard by drawing in so many players to his run and having good spacial awareness essentially created a 2v1 for Chelsea in a situation which they were outnumbered in. Inside the yellow circle is every player who was drawn towards Hazard as he simply ran towards his marker. Most importantly note how the second center back circled in black was drawn out of position and beaten by the quick cross he is 2 yards out of position due to the run, this really is the key to the goal.

Conclusion

Here is the important part. Eden Hazard analysed everything that I just put down in the very first picture of this piece. He would have known the consequences of each action and the effect they would have. He had great awareness to be able to see Fab's run and know to hold up play when he did. When I see people complain about Hazard slowing play down they often don't realize it is to give the attackers a chance to get in position. ( or in this case John Terry) This level of decision making coupled with his physical attributes is what makes Hazard a truly elite player. Sometimes beating a man is worse than running straight at him, and Hazard understands he doesn't need to overdo his skills.

P.S I love tactical breakdowns of football, so much takes place in a 10 second period such as this, I hope you enjoy reading it and can overlook my shockingly bad paint skills.