Chelsea’s Eden Hazard wants his reputation as one of the world’s great players to be based on titles rather than goal records as he embraced being put on the same pedestal as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Hazard scored what could be the goal of the season against Liverpool at Anfield in midweek, further demonstrating his peak form since the World Cup.
His manager, Maurizio Sarri, thinks Hazard can score 40 this season, but Hazard does not want his contribution measured by his strike rate.
“I don’t have (goal) targets to be fair – my only target is to win something every year. I want to win trophies,” he said.
“It is not important how many goals I score. You know me, I don’t care about that. I just want to enjoy my football and win games.
“At the moment I am scoring goals, that is why everyone is talking for me to be in the top three (players).
“It is a pleasure to be there. I just want to keep going. I am the same player as two years ago, three years ago. I’m now in a period that I score a lot of goals, and hopefully I keep on scoring. It won’t be simple. Definitely not in the Premier League. I’m feeling good since the FA Cup final. Something you see. I play in strong teams, here with Chelsea and with Belgium who were very good at the World Cup, and that helps me to perform better too.”
Team mate Ross Barkley says Hazard is currently the world’s best and puts the team’s needs above personal accolades.
“Compared to them (Ronaldo and Messi), they are probably a lot more selfish than Eden is,” said Barkley.
“He is not a selfish player. He is happy getting two assists and the team winning. What he has done against Liverpool, honestly he’s doing it every day in training.
“He is establishing himself in the top three players in the world. At the minute, he’s probably the best player in the world.”
The Belgian is the star for @ChelseaFC once again as he cuts through the @LFC defence to put his team ahead!
Hazard acknowledged the influence of Sarri’s style on his game. Chelsea are playing a possession-based game now, but the 27 year-old was careful not to sound disrespectful to the former managers who brought the title to Stamford Bridge.
“You see it on the pitch. We have different players, players that we didn’t have last season, players who like to have the ball,” said Hazard.
“We have more possession than before. The attacking players benefit from that. We get more touches, more opportunities to create chances, to dribble more, more chances to shoot on target. Sarri is a manager who likes to have the ball. That makes a big difference. Besides that, he’s an Italian. Just like Conte there’s a lot of tactics and we have to work hard in training.
“But I don’t feel like saying that I didn’t have any freedom under my previous managers. Conte and Mourinho also let me do what I wanted in the last third. That’s why I could excel under them, too. Defensively, I know what I have to do.”
On his winning goal at Anfield, ending Jurgen Klopp’s flawless start to the season, Hazard said: “It’s one of the most beautiful goals I have ever scored. But I have already made a few nice ones in my career. It feels special, though. Because it’s at Anfield, against a big club like Liverpool that, on top of that, had won all of their games this season. When I got the ball on the touchline I only thought about scoring that goal. I didn’t want to go to a shoot-out session. So that played in my mind all of the time.”
Such is Sarri’s impact, Hazard joked he would be happy to work with him during the international breaks, too.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful towards Roberto Martinez, but maybe, when his spell at Belgium is over, we can start thinking about Sarri,” he said.
Despite the encouraging results and mood at Chelsea, Hazard is yet to commit his long-term future to the club.
“I haven’t signed a contract. Not yet. Not yet,” he said.
Hazard added: “Even when the things are not going well, I try to be happy when I am on the pitch. That is why I like football. At the moment, we are winning games so it is more easy to smile but when I am on the pitch I just try to be happy. At the moment it is good. I am scoring goals, we are playing good, so I am enjoying it but we will see in the future.
“We won the last FA Cup last year. We know the Premier League is going to be hard. City and Liverpool, they have a lot of good players.”
Culled from The Telegraph
