Real Madrid: 3 players who need to step-up in the absence of Eden Hazard

Eden Hazard had a thigh injury again. It’s nothing new for him in his Real Madrid career, and it isn’t even surprising news now. But it definitely came at the wrong time for both the club and the player. Just when he was getting back to normalcy, here came a stumbling block, which is going to keep him out of action for four to six weeks.

He is always an automatic selection whenever he’s fit, but his absence requires someone to cover for him and give their best to help the team offensively in the big games ahead.

Let us have a look at three players who need to step-up in the absence of Eden Hazard.

Vinicius Junior

Vinicius Jr. is the direct replacement for Eden Hazard in the squad. He was going to be Hazard’s backup after the Belgian’s arrival in 2019, but due to his injuries, Vini got more minutes than expected. The 20-year-old has three goals and three assists this season, but he didn’t score a single goal since October and has been disappointing of late.

Vinicius has few issues to sort out. He’s looking low on confidence, and he hasn’t looked well after that Benzema and Mendy tunnel incident. His finishing is still the same, and he is losing a lot of balls.

There’s a need for him to improve in few areas if he wants to be valued at Real Madrid. He needs to turn around his career. First of all, he has to improve on his finishing, which still looks terrible. He needs to focus on his passing as well, because your team can’t have the desired control when you keep losing the balls by misplacing passes. He needs to practice making runs in behind the defense, and improve his off-the-ball movement as well.

Last season, when there was a crisis at Real Madrid in February and Hazard was absent, he stepped up in big games vs Manchester City and Barcelona. It’s February again, big games are coming and the marquee signing Hazard is out on the sidelines again. Can he repeat the magic again and prove his critics wrong again?