Football
Miguel Delaney 7y

Antonio Conte always wanted to build Chelsea around 'off-form' Eden Hazard

When Antonio Conte sat down with the Chelsea hierarchy to start discussing the specifics of his new job, and what their transfer movements would be, he had one major condition. Club sources say the Italian insisted that Eden Hazard could not be sold no matter what. He was the single player whose exit could not possibly be sanctioned.

The Belgian has fully justified the Italian's stance. Not only has he been one of Chelsea's best players, and arguably the most influential player in their eight-game winning streak, even above N'Golo Kante or Diego Costa. He is also in the best form of his career, certainly in terms of goals.

Hazard currently has eight in 14 matches, a ratio of 0.57 per game. That betters any of his previous three seasons at Chelsea, but also the spectacular 2011-12 campaign that made his name at Lille, when he hit 20 goals in 38 games -- a ratio of 0.53.

Those stats only tell part of the story. Just as striking is the sense of expression to his game again, the quicksilver creativity.

Jon Walters is part of the Stoke City squad that will face Chelsea later this month, and was sitting injured on the Irish bench as Hazard began to rediscover form for Belgium in their 3-0 Euro 2016 win over Ireland, but remains hugely impressed by the 25-year-old's sheer speed. "It's the pace," Walters tells ESPN FC. "One quick ball and he's gone, alongside Costa and Willian."

That's what eight successive Premier League defences have struggled with. It is a speed, however, that has also applied to his form. Hazard's devastating displays are all the more impressive because it is only a few months ago when they were so disappointing.

It was a drop-off from his 2014-15 player-of-the-year form so stark, in fact, that you could have forgiven some at Chelsea for raising their eyebrows at Conte's insistence they keep the Belgian. The poverty of performances even led some supporters to openly question whether he was one of the "rats" that Jose Mourinho accused of leaking team info in that dismal 2015-16 season.

That was not true. Sources close to the player say that he had a positive attitude towards Mourinho even in the chaotic last few games of the Portuguese's Chelsea reign, as emphasised by how they still keep in touch and exchange text messages. As such, the reasons for Hazard's drop in form were more complex and down to a combination of factors, not least the entire team's struggles and an injury that affected his individual play. There was also the fact that Mourinho's instructions to Hazard were mostly defensive, and there wasn't too much team planning in terms of attacking play. So much was dependent on individual form of attackers.

Even though Mourinho was always impressing on Hazard the need to be more ruthless, some close to the players felt that his game was still a bit too "nice"; that it lacked that cutting edge.

All of that has changed under Conte. First of all, the Italian plans out carefully coordinated attacks, and you can get a sense of this when you see him literally conducting moves on the sideline. He also expects his players, including Hazard, to be at certain positions when the play is at certain points.

From there, though, there are two big changes. Hazard explained one himself, talking about how he no longer needs to track back in the way Mourinho demanded. "I don't need to defend against the right-back, [Marcos] Alonso is there," he said recently. "I just have to focus on staying in my position."

Conte allows Hazard a conspicuous amount of freedom to express himself within their coordinated moves. It has actually been a key issue for manager and star player.

While Conte has obviously received so much praise throughout out his career for his high-energy approach, his time with Juventus and Italy was always underscored with occasional criticism that his team's primary approach was to try and overpower opposition, but that they didn't have many solutions when the opposition stayed tight at the back. It has been an issue with a lot of high pressing teams, particularly Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham Hotspur without Harry Kane. They have a lot of intensity, but sometimes lack incision; lack that nuance or spark.

This is precisely what Hazard provides. He is given enough individual freedom within the team system to bring it up a level, to add that extra element of unpredictability to the often unyielding power.

This is why exactly why Conte wanted to keep him above any other player.

It has so far made a significant difference to his form, and Chelsea's season.

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