Chelsea scout Piet de Visser believes that former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is to blame for Eden Hazard’s astronomical drop in form this season, according to an interview with HLN.
De Visser said that Mourinho tried to turn the Belgian into an improved version of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, saying:
Eden is a player who has moments of brilliance. Mourinho tried to turn him into an improved version of Messi or Ronaldo, but that is impossible.
Hazard will never be like that. Eden is Eden, a player with brilliant individual actions, but someone who will never become a machine. He also wants to relax. You should never make him the player to carry the team. Don’t make him the captain. Just tell him to enjoy himself out there.
De Visser also believes that there was too much pressure on Hazard to take over every game.
Mourinho is a winner and wanted to get even more out of Eden. He was already great, though, so why not just leave it at that? Mourinho wanted him to carry the team in every game, to score every match and to be decisive all the time.
The pressure became too much for Eden and that hurt his game. That’s when Mourinho lost it. Hazard went from heaven to hell under Mourinho. That led to stress and injuries. I hope the new coach will treat him differently.
Hazard made his return from injury on Saturday afternoon in Chelsea’s 4-1 win over Bournemouth at Dean Court.
The Belgian, who had been missing from action since early March, played a full 90 minutes after manager Guus Hiddink said on Friday that he was not likely to play the entire match.
Hazard scored a brace in his return, scoring the second goal of the match after an assist from Cesc Fabregas. He put the nail in the coffin with Chelsea’s fourth goal after an assist from Nemanja Matic. It was Hazard’s first Premier League goals of the 2015/16 season.
The Belgian winger now has four goals and eight assists in 39 appearances in all competitions this season — this after scoring 19 goals and assisting 13 times in 52 appearances during a 2014/15 campaign that saw the Blues win the League title and Capital One Cup title. Hazard was also voted PFA Player of the Year during the last term.
