Football is a game heavily biased towards attacking players. The flair, the panache, the flaunt and the spotlight; it is all up for grabs for them while the defenders, representing the bourgeois of football, are left to manage the thankless task of keeping these illustrious men out of the front page of the next day’s newspapers.
In the modern game, the case has become direr for defenders with lighter balls, scientific shoes that allow better control and referees handing out heavy punishment to errors of even the slightest margin.
However, looking on the bright side of things, what such adaptations have done is the rise of modern day footballers. Short in stature with a low centre of gravity and a knack to run straight at defenders or craftily slide through killer passes, these players are in sharp contrast to the old bulky players of yesteryears in the Premier League.
A master of such a game is Chelsea ace Eden Hazard. The Belgium National Team captain joined the Blues back in the summer of 2012. In his five year spell at the club, Chelsea has seen the worst and the best of Hazard and interestingly the form of the club has reflected the form of the player, such is the importance of the winger in the team.
On his day when, he is on par with the best in the world and cannot be touched, let alone caught on the field. He dances and dazzles his way through and weaves a wave of magic on the pitch on his way to goal, leaving fans and players mesmerized. However, such days are short in number and inconsistency is perhaps the only complaint any manager can have with the player.
Hazard is most dangerous when he has the ball at his feet and teammates rallying around him. Developments of different managerial patterns in the existing game would then suggest that the best place for Hazard right now would be Etihad where a certain Pep Guardiola is deploying another masterclass of attacking display to win the league title. Guardiola, known for his attacking prowess as a manager and the habit of playing teams who can hold on to the ball for weeks at a time, would be a perfect mentor for Hazard to realize his true potential and turn on his best game for the world to see.
However, even though a move to Manchester City, as is being reported, is on the cards for Eden Hazard, and a chance to flourish under Pep’s tutelage may seem tempting, he would be wise to decline the offer. City already have an array of attackers and it would be almost impossible for them to draft another world-class player into their squad without adding an extra bench for their substitutes.
Hazard gets regular time at Chelsea and it would be a step down for a player of his calibre to move to any team where he would have to share his time on the pitch, especially when he is in the prime of his career.
Moreover, it is highly unbelievable that Antonio Conte would ever allow his best player to switch clubs to join a direct rival. No matter how good a dribbler Hazard is, he will not be able to weave his magic past the Italian Don. But do you think a move to City is in any way good for him?
