It’s Time For Eden Hazard To Step Up For Real Madrid

Real Madrid need Eden Hazard to bring his absolute best.

Eden Hazard made his dream come true when he signed for Real Madrid on June 7, 2019, after his move from Chelsea finally came to fruition. With all the hype surrounding the Belgian forward, his first season at the club was definitely one to forget as it was mixed with injuries, lack of decisiveness, and below-average performances.

During his first season at the club, Hazard played a total of 22 games (two of which were substitute appearances) in the league and the UEFA Champions League with a total of one goal and three assists in all these matches. For a player of his caliber, these numbers are quite painful to look at. Of course, there is the matter of his transfer fee as well which will have to be looked at when a player has been under-performing like he has been.

When focusing on just his first season at the club, we cannot simply say that Hazard is past his best nor can we say that he won’t succeed at the club. There are a few different things that need to be focused on when it comes to the player and even though luck hasn’t been kind to the Belgian, he will also need to shoulder a little bit of the blame as well especially when it comes to his fitness.

Things have not been the same for Eden Hazard since his injury against PSG

Injuries are the most prevalent argument of them all. The player started off the campaign a little slowly – which was expected – before it finally looked like we were ready to see the true and final form of Hazard with a wonderful performance against Paris Saint-Germain that ended with an injury to his ankle after a completely needless tackle coming from his international teammate Thomas Meunier. Things have not been the same for him since then.

Hazard spent some time focusing on recovering  and then it turned out that the player would need surgery. Unfortunately, even though surgery definitely helped, it has been taking him a lot longer than expected to recover. He finally played in Real Madrid’s loss to Manchester City and things finally seemed to be looking up before the Belgium manager, Roberto Martinez, decided not to play him in the International Break and admitted that Hazard is recovering well but, “He will need to control it his entire career, with treatments before and after the games”.

In addition to his injuries, we have all seen the countless memes of Eden Hazard arriving to Madrid overweight last summer and we have seen it again this time around even though it isn’t as much of a focus as it was last year. Everyone deserves some time off but in a profession like this, you always need to take care of your fitness and ensure that you return to training in the best possible shape that you can be in.

Hazard isn’t at 100 percent yet and it was clear with Zidane decided not to put him in the squad list traveling to Real Sociedad. When asked about it, the manager said, “He’s doing better and the most important thing is the player and how he feels. The important thing is that he’s100%. We’re now starting a new season and what he needs is to be at 100% or 120%, that’s all there is to it. We’re going to prepare to ensure that the players are prepared to be at 100%”.

The player isn’t exactly injured but he’s also not fit. Zidane is definitely doing the right thing to keep him away from official matches until he’s at the best shape that he can be in.

A new home could take Eden Hazard some time to get used to

After making history with Chelsea, Hazard had a new place to call home in Madrid and regardless of how good you are as a player and how old you are, getting accustomed to a new place, a new manager, a new style of play and a new home will take a little bit of time to get used to. For the forward, that was no different and even though his abilities were able to be shown on the pitch in flashes, we all could see that he was still struggling a little bit.

However, over one year after his move to Spain became official, it’s time for Eden Hazard to step up.

The unforgiving Real Madrid fanbase were understanding enough (in general) and they are all ready to judge the signing on his second season at the club. Of course, Hazard also made it clear when mentioning that “I’ll be judged on my second season at Real Madrid” and therefore, the fans are ready to wait and see how he does but expecting them to wait too much longer won’t be pretty.

We cannot deny the skills that Hazard has but living in the past won’t do any good for us in the future. His first season was disappointing for the club and the fans but more importantly, it was disappointing for the player who knows he has a lot more but was unable to show it. Right now, the club is working on getting him back to 100% before he is back on the pitch and that’s definitely the right call especially since the season is just starting and things will get a lot more difficult in the coming months.

Be patient with Eden Hazard, good things are coming.

How long will it take Hazard to return to the lineup? As long as it takes. These are things that should never be rushed and once the Zidane and the staff feel like the player is ready, then he is ready. Whether that will be in the next match or in a few weeks remains to be seen. However, they will need to ensure that once Hazard is back, he is actually back and ready to fight for his place in the squad.

We are talking about a sensational player and someone who can change the game on his own. Even though we haven’t seen that version of him since his arrival at Real Madrid, that doesn’t mean that we won’t see it. Zidane knows what is required from the player and Hazard knows what he is capable of and why the club spent so much to buy him.

It’s almost time to welcome the real Eden Hazard to Real Madrid. What a fun season it will be.