Monday
Night Football pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher discussed Eden
Hazard's omission from Chelsea's team for the 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
The Belgian - who was named PFA Player of the Year last season after playing
an instrumental role in Chelsea's title win and Capital One Cup triumph -
was benched by Jose Mourinho, who says his winger must increase his
defensive work rate if he wants to return to the side.
"I've got no sympathy for Hazard. I expect more of him," said Neville.
"The level he got to last season, you started to see a great player. In the
Premier League, how many real top, world-class players could you say we have
in the league?
"[Sergio] Aguero, [David] Silva you'd look at, you'd look at Hazard and put
him into that level of category. There might be a couple more, I'm not
saying we haven't got more, but they're the three I can think of off the top
of my head.
"Hazard, there was talk last season of him getting into that Messi, Ronaldo
bracket. Of course they have off periods but even in the off periods they
still contribute, they score goals.
"You saw Ronaldo breaking the record at the weekend and what Messi's done.
But I've got no sympathy for [Hazard] in the sense that the question mark
hanging over him is in respect of 'can he go to that next, next level?'
"He's got to pull himself out of it. I've got no sympathy for the very top
players with the best talent, the best skill, they really have got
everything at their feet and I'd expect them not just to go and be player of
the year this year, I'd expect them to take it forward and get confidence
from that and go and score 30 goals next season, be the best player in the
league again and dominate and dominate.
"He hasn't done that at the start of this season and he needs to pull
himself out of it. Every player goes through a tough patch but he's got to
do it quickly because that's what the best players do, they come out of
these patches very quickly."
Carragher expects Hazard to return to the Chelsea starting XI in the coming
weeks and get back to his high levels soon.
"[Hazard] started the season slowly, as did a lot of top players," said
Carragher. "You think of [Alexis] Sanchez who has come right back into form
now.
"What hasn't helped him is Chelsea have been conceding goals that they don't
normally do. I think he has been at fault for two or three goals. We've
spoken about how Jose Mourinho has got him to work harder coming back but
it's not something that comes naturally to him.
"At the weekend [Mourinho] played Willian and Pedro in those roles, who are
more willing to come back. It's more what they're about as wide players.
[Hazard] has that stardust going forward. But at the moment Mourinho needs
clean sheets.
"He couldn't trust Eden Hazard to be in the team and the team to keep a
clean sheet. I think that says a lot about the back four and defenders as
well as the attacking players.
"But he's a top player. A few weeks he'll be back in the side and I'm sure
over the next few months we'll see the old Eden Hazard of last season."
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