Eden Michael Hazard. The most underappreciated footballer of our time #Thread

In the summer of 2012 Chelsea FC completed the transfer of Belgian youngster Eden Michael Hazard from lilleosc for an undisclosed fee, it is understood that there was interest from Manchester United at the time but the Belgian chose Blue over Red.

21 years old at the time, Hazard with 22 goals was the reigning Ligue 1 POTY, having retained the award from the previous season and consequently becoming
-The 2nd ever to win the award back-to-back.
-The youngest ever to win the award.

The previous season Hazard led Lille to the domestic double, their first since 1946 and first league title since 1954. At just 20 he had become a Lille legend.

In the six years from 2012-2018 Eden has scored 69 League goals. An goal per season ratio of roughly 11.5, in comparison with Chelsea's all time highest goal scorers
Lampard 11.3
Bobby Tambling 14.9
Kerry Dixon 16.3
Didier Drogba 11.6
Roy Bentley 16.0
Peter Osgood 9.5

In the PL ERA however not only is Eden the joint third highest goal scorer ever but he also has a better goal per season ratio than every non-striker and is only beaten by Anelka 12.7, Costa 17.3, Spencer 12, Drogba 11.6 and Hasselbaink 17.3.

As far as PL assists Hazard ranks fourth behind Lampard, Drogba and Cesc. His rate of 6.5 is only beaten by Cesc's 10.3 and Lamp's 7.1.

However, in the past five seasons in the EPL Eden Hazard has created more chances from open play (324) than anyone else, the closest competitor being Ozil with 294.

Hazard has also been in Chelsea's top 3 highest goal scorers in 5 out of the 6 seasons he's spent in the club. More than any other player excluding Frank Lampard but joint second with Drogba. He hit double digits each time except in 12/13 when he scored 9
https://www.statbunker.com/alltimestats/MostGoalsScorerInSeason?comp_code=EPL&club_id=8

Eden Hazard's 69 goals and 39 assists represents 25.2% contribution to goals scored by Chelsea (425) since he joined the club, Only about 2% less than Frank's and better than any other player's. Messi in Barca has 44.2%, Ronaldo in Madrid 40.2%.

MOTM awards.
2012/2013 - 5
2013/2014 - 6 CH
2014/2015 - 10 LH
2015/2016 - 5
2016/2017 - 13 LH
2017/2018 - 9 LH

LH - League highest
CH - Club highest

Eden Hazard for Belgium.
-Captained them to best ever 3rd place finish at WorldCup.
-7 MOTM awards, 8 assists and 4 goals in 15 World Cup and Euro Cup games.
-7th all time highest scorer with 25 goals and 15 assists.

Eden in the UCL
12/13 - Joint highest assists for Chelsea 2
13/14 - 4th highest goal scorer for Chelsea 2
14/15 - Highest goal scorer for Chelsea 3
14/15 - 2nd highest assists for Chelsea 2

15/16 - Joint highest assists for Chelsea 1
17/18 - Joint highest assists for Chelsea 2
17/18 - Joint highest goal scorer for Chelsea 3
Eden's UCL form isn't so poor when you factor in the quality of players surrounding him and their form in the UCL.

At the end of the day, pulling out stats and isolating them from the stats of the team and the other players might work to discredit Eden Hazard, however an unbiased critical look into his stats, relative to that of his team and teammates paints a different picture entirely.

Eden Michael Hazard is one of the greatest players to ever walk this earth and while he has a lot to improve upon, we need to appreciate him more than we criticise.

The End.