[THREAD]: How @hazardeden10 bounced back from a tough season.

Can he do it again, this time with Real Madrid?

As we know, Eden Hazard had a catastrophic season in 2015/16, where he went 356 days without scoring a league goal but also performed to an average level.

But, as we all know, he bounced back in the best way.

Eden Hazard played a total of 43 games in 2015/16, he scored 6 goals and gave 8 assists.

Premier League - 4 goals + 4 assists
Champions League - 1 assist
FA Cup - 2 goals + 3 assists

Other than goals - these were Eden Hazard league stats in 2015/16.

He played a total of 31 games, of which he started 25 & averaging 71 minutes per game.

Key passes p90 - 2.2
Accurate passes p90 - 39.6 (86%)
Accurate long balls p90 - 2.4 (84%)
Accurate crosses p90 - 0.3 (20%)

Successful dribbles p90 - 2.9 (62%)
Total duels won p90 - 6.2 (55%)
Ground duels won p90 - 5.8 (58%)

Fouled - 2.3 times p90.
Dispossessed - 1.5 times p90.

The numbers might come to his defense here, but in 2015/16, Hazard was very passive (much like his first season in Madrid). He didn’t take any risks. Over 60% of his passes were backwards, attempted only 4.2 dribbles per game & only 0.8 shots per game.

Even though his season was one to forget, Eden Hazard still managed to produce one of the most iconic moments of the year, when he scored the decisive goal vs Spurs in a 2-2 draw, the goal that crowned Leicester City as champions of England.

Eden Hazard was criticized a lot at the end of that season & rightly so. A lot of people stated that he’d lost his lack of motivation to continue at Chelsea and that he would never be the same Hazard again.

But, come 2016/17, all the doubters would be proven wrong and Hazard would drop one of the greatest individual PL seasons of all time.

After the worst individual season of his career, the burden on Hazard’s shoulder was even bigger than before and critics would focus on him.

But the answer he gave was an amazing one.

Eden Hazard started the 2016/17 season on a high note. He scored 2 goals in the first 4 matches and had an average rating of 9.2 per match - being Chelsea’s player of the month for August.

After losing games in both gameweek 5 and 6, Chelsea went on a 13-game winning streak and Hazard was the most important player of that run, scoring 7 goals and giving 2 assists.

He scored vs teams like Manchester United & City, Leicester and Everton, but also in relatively tough away games such as Southampton, where he scored a goal and gave an assist, finishing the game with a 10 in rating.

In that run of 13 matches, Hazard played 12 and got an average rating of 9.0 - he was close to flawless, a joy to watch.

The match vs Manchester City is the most memorable one of that run. Eden Hazard scored once and was the one that tore City’s defense apart.

The level he showed in those months, was that of a top 5 player - if not higher.

He finished 2016/17 with 43 matches, 17 goals and 7 assists.

Premier League - 16 goals, 5 assists.
FA Cup - 1 goal, 1 assist.
EFL Cup - 1 assist.

Now, let’s compare his 2016/17 stats with those of the previous season.

Hazard played 36 matches in the Premier League & started all of them - with an average of 83 minutes per game.

Everything in [ ] is compared to 15/16.

Key passes per match - 2.5 [0.3 more]

Accurate passes p90 - 40.9 (84%) [1.3 more, 2% less accuracy]

Accurate long balls p90 - 3.2 (87%) [0.8 more, 3% more accuracy]

Accurate crosses p90 - 0.5 (20%) [0.2 more, same accuracy]

Successful dribbles p90 - 4.0 (77%) [1.6 more dribbles completed, 13% higher]

Total duels won p90 - 7.8 (62%) [1.6 more duels won, 7% higher]

Ground duels won p90 - 7.2 (65%) [1.6 more duels won, 7% higher percentage]

Fouled - 2.7 times p90. [0.4 more]

Dispossessed - 1.7 times p90. [0.2 more]

You can see that Eden Hazard truly stepped his game up. He took far more risks too, his passing stat shows only 26% backward passes - 34% less than 15/16.

Attempted 6.1 dribbles p90 - 1.9 more than in 15/16.

Attempted 1.7 shots per game - 0.9 more than in 15/16.

Eden Hazard was Chelsea’s best player in 2016/17 - he was the main reason behind their title win, he was named Chelsea’s player of the year & second in PFA’s player of the year, only second to his teammate N’Golo Kanté.

Eden Hazard also scored one of the best goals of the season - the amazing solo run vs Arsenal, which is also one of the best individual goals ever in the Premier League.

Truly a special kind.

He proved everyone wrong. Came back from the dead, from his worst season ever to being the main man in a title-winning side.

He never stopped trying and always worked hard, and that season, he undoubtedly was one of the best in the world.

The same may well happen this year. Eden Hazard will work hard to be back to his best and be decisive in Real Madrid’s title challenges.

He is a special player & he will prove that.

We should all have full trust in him to turn this whole situation around, he did so once & he can do it again.

@hazardeden10 is special and we’re all waiting for him to show it. Now, it’s time.