Real Madrid: 3 ways Eden Hazard has been missed

Eden Hazard has been out with an ankle injury suffered against PSG on Nov. 27. Here’s how much Real Madrid has missed the star winger.

Real Madrid star Eden Hazard got injured with what seemed to be a minor ankle injury against PSG in the Champions League. He was playing at his very best level since joining Los Blancos at the time. Reports at the time said that he’d be most probably out for 10-15 days.

But Hazard has now been out for more than a month, with no further reports from the club as to when exactly will he be back. While Real haven’t suffered a lot due to his absence, there have been games where he would certainly have made a difference between a draw and a win.

Here are three key ways Eden Hazard has been missed by Los Blancos:

1) Overload on Karim Benzema

In the five games before the PSG game where Hazard got injured, Karim Benzema’s stats read six goals and four assists. Since Hazard has been out, Real have played seven games of which Benzema started six. His stats in those six games? Two goals and an assist. While Karim has proved through his performances last season that he can score on his own, there’s no doubt that an in-form Hazard helps Benzema.

Without Eden in the line-up, Benzema has to drop deeper to help ball progression and linking the attack with the midfield. This puts extra load on him and he has to focus on both creating chances and finishing them. With Eden in the team, Benzema focuses more on goal-scoring as he has a teammate who helps ball progression through his impressive dribbling.

The overload on Benzema’s shoulders also affects Los Blancos’ goal-scoring form with Real’s goal output significantly down since Eden’s injury. Real Madrid scored 18 goals in the five games before Eden’s injury and just 11 goals in the seven games after.