The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Mason Holgate is the target of a new FA investigation. Not for maliciously shoving Firmino into the front row of the stands. Nope. For tweets he sent when he was 15 years old. How utterly ridiculous is this?

FA doing FA things

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

To the first part of this statement... it is a complete failure of the system that Holgate will face 0 punishment for that shove. Completely unacceptable.

To the second part - I'm so glad twitter didn't exist when I was 15, i was an idiot.


Blow my ****ing mind everytime I see that it's still a 2-legged SEMI FINAL. As if the cup means anything.

I for one am extremely excited about a trip to Bristol right before the Champions League starts back up with several key players hurt or missing time for other reasons.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Bellerin goes studs first into Hazard's ankle and the halftime analysis is spent entirely on the Maitland-Niles penalty shout. I mean it's a penalty, but Arsenal should already be down to 10 men.

Also this game is pretty bad.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Bakayoko on for Hazard, game is about to turn on its head

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Maybe teams should actually stop paying striker money for strikers.

[ZeroTheHero]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Usually that's Willian.

Hazard does it sometimes, but it's largely a byproduct of just playing for Chelsea for so long. He's the only one that is going to do anything dangerous and he knows it. Sometimes he will hold the ball instead of passing it off because he just doesn't trust whoever, which is often pretty justified.

In general though, your comment applies to Willian far more than it applies to Hazard.

Hazard could've assisted 3-4 goals today, but he hesitated and wanted to be the hero himself.

Such a waste of talent.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Hazard could've assisted 3-4 goals today, but he hesitated and wanted to be the hero himself.

Such a waste of talent.

He’s been a bit off lately, but I’m just going to reiterate that your assessment of him is unbelievably off.

Wanting to be the hero has literally never been an accurate description of Hazard. In fact, the single biggest criticism of Hazard during his time at Chelsea is that he’s not ruthless and selfish enough. Analysts have been going on about how Hazard should be a 30 goal player for years.

Anyway, his current hesitancy to pass to his teammates has a lot to do with the advanced knowledge that they will almost certainly find a way to **** it up.

[ZeroTheHero]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

If he had been selfish at the right moments, perhaps. But he's not particularly smart, ruthless or clinical. If he hadn't hesitated as much, he'd have 15 more goals and assists per season, which would've benefited the team a lot more than being selfish all the time. It's much less predictable as well.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

If he had been selfish at the right moments, perhaps. But he's not particularly smart, ruthless or clinical. If he hadn't hesitated as much, he'd have 15 more goals and assists per season, which would've benefited the team a lot more than being selfish all the time. It's much less predictable as well.

So this season in particular, Hazard is a lot more hesitant than he usually is, although judging from the way you keep describing him it sounds like you are basing your entire opinion on Hazard just from watching our games against Arsenal.

First of all, most Chelsea fans don't actually WANT Hazard to be more ruthless and clinical. He doesn't need to be, the rest of our players do. Hazard is Hazard, he's very similar to Ozil in that he is just out there having fun, doing things his own way. He wants to set others up for goals, he lives for it, if he could choose between 50 goals per season or 50 assists he will choose assists every time. This is how he has always played, and making him a more selfish, ruthless goalscorer would be fundamentally changing who Hazard is as a player. He's so much fun to watch BECAUSE of the way he plays, no Chelsea fans want him to be different.

Hazard's two biggest problems at Chelsea have been playing in consistently defensive sides, and not having other attackers to link up with that are remotely near his level. Part of his hesitancy to pass is just a learned behavior due to playing in such defensive teams, where 9/10 times he gets the ball in the final third there is only 1 other attacker to play with. He is also tasked with being the number one chance creator in the team, while every single team we play against double or triple marks him and then kicks his legs until we have to sub him off.

Funny enough, in terms of numbers and attacking efficiency, possibly Hazard's best spell was his very first, under arguably our least-talented manager. Bobby had us playing some very attacking football, and Hazard got to run in a fluid 3-man attacking midfield with Oscar and Mata. His first 10 games in all comps that season Hazard had something like 11 assists and 3 goals.

Hazard has spent roughly his entire Chelsea career being in the top 5 for chances created in all of Europe. The amount of chances he creates every game is bonkers. I guarantee you if you drop Hazard into an attacking team his numbers would be much higher, not that stats have ever really told the whole story with Hazard.

I'll add that as the third problem with Hazard. People just look at his stats without watching him play regularly. Jesse Lingard currently has better numbers than Hazard. Dele Alli and Son regularly have better numbers than Hazard, are they all better players?

[ZeroTheHero]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Your entitled to your opinion.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Your entitled to your opinion.

And you're entitled to yours.

[ZeroTheHero]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Obviously, since I made the comment, I was acutely aware of the fact.

Either way, whether Hazard doesn't trust his team mates or has just become hesitant, it's not good for either him or the team.

[bhurst99]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Mahrez is playing today like he is actually worth $50 million.

Pretty rough call on the second yellow

Sent from my LG-H812 using Operation Sports mobile app

[~LiverpoolRed~]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Huge results at the foot of the table if these hold up. 6 points separate 18th place from 10th.

[dubcity]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Chelsea does not want to finish in 2nd, apparently.