Eden Hazard’s desire to play in the no.10 role is nothing new, though as he himself points out, there’s an even smaller chance of him playing as one nowadays considering that Antonio Conte’s tactics really do not utilize that position. Except for against a ten-man Leicester City, when Cesc Fàbregas operated as the creator “in the hole” behind the forwards, Chelsea have stuck to using multiple deeper midfielders, one or two strikers and two wide players instead.
“I like to play as a No 10. I think I have more freedom offensively. For Belgium, we have full backs who run hard and create a lot of space, which is good and I like to play there.”
“I don’t know if I will play there at Chelsea. You need to ask the manager! I play on the left hand side and I try to do the best I can.”
“It’s true I like to play as a 10. Sometimes at Chelsea we don’t play with system with a number 10, too. I don’t think Chelsea wants to change just for me (to play) as a 10. I did well in the past as a left winger and for now, I am trying to get back to that best again.”
Eden Hazard’s quest to get back to his best has encountered its fair share of ups and downs, but after a lackluster few weeks for Chelsea, he showed glimpses of said best while away on international duty with Belgium. The trick is to make these glimpses a consistent and constant feature of his game once again. He believes Conte (and his methods) could be just the thing to help unlock the mystery.
“We are fit because we ran a lot in pre-season! You need to do this to stay at the top. We want to improve with this manager. He is good. We started well with 3 wins, then we suffered two defeats after the international break and then we won again. He has tried to bring confidence to the players.”
-Eden Hazard; source: Mail
Hazard’s public support for the new boss is especially well timed given all that betting nonsense yesterday.
Words are of course one thing; execution and results are quite another.
