Eden Hazard

[Blaugrana Bull]

For me Hazard is clearly a world class player.
If you really want to start the comparisons again, I would say that Neymar had a better season but Hazard is probably the more complete player. One (Ney) is more the goal scoring type of winger and the other (Eden) tends to create more from midfield.
Another thing that has been discussed in here very often: Would Barca have been even better with Hazard instead of Neymar last season? Not at all imo. A team has to be perfectly balanced to be as successful as we were last season. Some of Hazard's qualities would be redundant with us because we have Messi who creates most chances together with our midfield players but he lacks qualities Neymar has. Do not forget Neymar's defensive and pressing skills which are very underrated. That is one of Hazard's weaknesses.

 

[Morten]

For me Hazard is clearly a world class player.
If you really want to start the comparisons again, I would say that Neymar had a better season but Hazard is probably the more complete player. One (Ney) is more the goal scoring type of winger and the other (Eden) tends to create more from midfield.
Another thing that has been discussed in here very often: Would Barca have been even better with Hazard instead of Neymar last season? Not at all imo. A team has to be perfectly balanced to be as successful as we were last season. Some of Hazard's qualities would be redundant with us because we have Messi who creates most chances together with our midfield players but he lacks qualities Neymar has. Do not forget Neymar's defensive and pressing skills which are very underrated. That is one of Hazard's weaknesses.

lolwut?

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

Defensive skills? For sure.

 

[Morten]

Defensive skills? For sure.

Not at all, Hazard does alot of defensive work, great stamina etc. Certainly not a weakness of his.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

Not at all, Hazard does alot of defensive work, great stamina etc. Certainly not a weakness of his.

I disagree but anyway. You can erase that small addition at the end of my post but my point still stands with the Neymar/Hazard comparison or Hazard as a world class player in general.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

Hazard is world class but I think Neymar is better. I'd put their dribbling as equal just different styles. Neymar is a better goal scorer while Hazard is a better creator but I think overall when you take into account both of their goalscoring and creative abilities neymar is better.

 

[james baldwin]

Hazard is world class but I think Neymar is better. I'd put their dribbling as equal just different styles. Neymar is a better goal scorer while Hazard is a better creator but I think overall when you take into account both of their goalscoring and creative abilities neymar is better.

Hazard completed 180 dribbles last season with a 64% success rate. The most in Europe's top 5 leagues. By comparison, Messi, the player with the 2nd most dribbles completed in Europe had 174 dribbles last season with a 56% success rate. Neymar is a decent dribbler, but he's nowhere close to being on Hazard's level in this department. Hazard's dribbling prowess is comparable to Messi's and last season, he was even better than Messi in this regard, going by his superior success rate. And this is a guy that gets double marked every game, unlike the likes of Neymar.

Simply put. Neymar a decent dribbler and a very good skiller but he is not in Hazard's class when it comes to beating players.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

Hazard completed 180 dribbles last season with a 64% success rate. The most in Europe's top 5 leagues. By comparison, Messi, the player with the 2nd most dribbles completed in Europe had 174 dribbles last season with a 53% success rate. Neymar is a decent dribbler, but he's nowhere close to being on Hazard's level in this department. Hazard's dribbling prowess is comparable to Messi's and last season, he was even better than Messi in this regard, going by his superior success rate. And this is a guy that gets double marked every game, unlike the likes of Neymar.

Well if you want to bring stats into it Hazard had 9 assists last season while neymar had 8, Hazard had 17 goals while neymar had 31, according to whoscored. So going by statistics Hazard isnt even in the same league as Neymar........ And you can say that Neymar plays for the better team so of course his stats are going to be better, I can also say that Hazard doesn't play next to Messi if he did there was no way he was putting up those dribbling numbers.

 

[Morten]

Well if you want to bring stats into it Hazard had 9 assists last season while neymar had 8, Hazard had 17 goals while neymar had 31, according to whoscored. So going by statistics Hazard isnt even in the same league as Neymar........ And you can say that Neymar plays for the better team so of course his stats are going to be better, I can also say that Hazard doesn't play next to Messi if he did there was no way he was putting up those dribbling numbers.

Bale had better or about equal numbers as Hazard, Bale was as good as Hazard last season then? Numbers doesnt always tell the full picture. Anyway, Hazard is a better dribbler, no questions. Neymar is more effective in front of goal though.

 

[KyletheMuslim]

Hazard is more of a playmaking player, he has a much greater impact on the game than Bale

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

Bale had better or about equal numbers as Hazard, Bale was as good as Hazard last season then? Numbers doesnt always tell the full picture. Anyway, Hazard is a better dribbler, no questions. Neymar is more effective in front of goal though.

He put Hazard in the same league as Messi because of the Dribbling stats. When Hazard couldn't even dream of scoring some of the goals messi has scored in his career, at 19 Messi was doing things that Hazard won't do even in his prime. But back on topic I think Neymar is better overall but not by some huge difference just that if I were to rank the top 20 players in the world and lets say neymar is number 5, i'd probably put hazard at number 6. Maybe Hazard can consistently dribble people more often than neymar or atleast attempts it more but I've yet to see Hazard do anything Neymar hasn't done, dribbling wise. While creatively their effective output is the same and goalscoring wise Neymar is on a different level completely. Which is why I rate Neymar more.

 

[james baldwin]

Well if you want to bring stats into it Hazard had 9 assists last season while neymar had 8, Hazard had 17 goals while neymar had 31, according to whoscored. So going by statistics Hazard isnt even in the same league as Neymar........ And you can say that Neymar plays for the better team so of course his stats are going to be better, I can also say that Hazard doesn't play next to Messi if he did there was no way he was putting up those dribbling numbers.

The same whoscored that gives Neymar and Hazard the exact same rating last season? Riight.

 

[james baldwin]

Well if you want to bring stats into it Hazard had 9 assists last season while neymar had 8, Hazard had 17 goals while neymar had 31, according to whoscored. So going by statistics Hazard isnt even in the same league as Neymar........ And you can say that Neymar plays for the better team so of course his stats are going to be better, I can also say that Hazard doesn't play next to Messi if he did there was no way he was putting up those dribbling numbers.

I can bring up advanced stats from squawka.com that show that Hazard outperformed Neymar last season in many categories relevant to an attacking player, but it's pointless to do so. And it proves nothing. Neymar scored 40+ goals last season. He was amazing. But since when did a player's quality become completely determined by goals? Iniesta at his best rarely scored, yet no one argues his quality. Same with Zidane. Laudrup, Figo and so on, so why the double standard for Hazard?

I don't need a stat to determine player "X" is better than player "Y", yes specific stats can tell you something. i.e Neymar is a better scorer than Hazard, but Hazard is a better playmaker and dribbler. Yet no stat can tell define Neymar's off the ball movement or how Hazard's dribbling destabilizes defences and creates spaces for his teammates. I prefer to go by the eye-test and the eye test tells me that:

Hazard is the better player and by far the better dribbler. So let's agree to disagree and leave it at that.

 

[Morten]

The same whoscored that gives Neymar and Hazard the exact same rating last season? Riight.

The same whoscored with Bale on tots la liga? That site is hardly objective, yet many use it as a credible source when it comes to football.

 

[Jair Ventura]

The same whoscored with Bale on tots la liga? That site is hardly objective, yet many use it as a credible source when it comes to football.

There's a few outliers but for the most part whoscored is solid.