Jose Mourinho has spoken about Eden Hazard and why he has fallen short of expectations since signing for Real Madrid.
Mourinho managed the Belgian playmaker at Chelsea and says he is an ‘amazing player’ but doesn’t always put the maximum effort into his training and could be even greater if he was ‘super professional’.
AFP
Hazard was one of the Premier League’s best players during his spell at Chelsea, having worked under Mourinho for two-and-a-half years at Stamford Bridge, in the Special One’s second spell in charge.
His performances and superb goal record for the Blues – 110 goals and 92 assists in 352 games – saw him seal a big-money transfer to Real Madrid, for a free rising to £140million.
Heralded as a direct replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo, it hasn’t quite worked out that way in Spain, with Hazard struggling for form, fitness and with consistent injury troubles since his arrival at the Bernabeu.
Hazard has managed just five goals and eight assists in 43 games since joining the LaLiga giants in 2019.
Getty
Mourinho was asked about the 30-year-old when he joined talkSPORT for his latest appearance on the Breakfast show.
Speaking to Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist on Friday’s talkSPORT Breakfast, Mourinho said: “The truth about Eden Hazard?
“The truth is what you see from him, he is an amazing player with awful training.
“You can only imagine what he could be with a super professional attitude in training.
“In the end, he is an amazing kid, he is an incredible family man, he looks like he doesn’t belong to this generation of players, he’s very quiet and is totally focused on family, on kids, on parents, on a very quiet life.
“But he gets onto the pitch every morning and… he doesn’t work much.
“When he gets onto the pitch you don’t see the reflection of a week of work, you just see a reflection of his talent.
“He is this amazing player and you can imagine if he was a top professional. When he went to Real Madrid I thought wow, this guy is going to the biggest club in the world and is going to feel this huge pressure to be always at the top, this guy is going to win the Golden Ball, because he is amazing.
“But in terms of his fitness, his speed, his condition, he would be a much better player [if he trained properly]. What you see is just the talent that got Eden to where he is.
“He’s had more injuries at Real Madrid, at his time with me at Chelsea he didn’t, he might have had one but it was nothing big. But in Madrid he got into this negative dynamic with his injuries and that’s probably affected him.”
getty
It’s not only his club form that’s been affected by his recent fitness struggles, Hazard has gone from being Belgium’s posterboy to not currently being in the starting line-up.
The 30-year-old is in Roberto Martinez’ Euro 2020 squad and made two appearances in the nation’s two opening victories over Russia and Denmark, but as a substitute from the bench in both games.
However, Mourinho is expecting Hazard to play a major part in Belgium’s run, with the Red Devils one of the favourites for the title.
He added: “In this case, he is back to Belgium, back to the big stage, you can feel he has a good relationship with Roberto Martinez, but he is on the bench at this moment
“But he will be ready to jump to win watches, so I believe Belgium will end the Euros with Eden starting and probably at the top of his game.”
from Football - news, transfers, fixtures, scores, pictures https://ift.tt/35vKdkR
via IFTTT
No Comment