Suarez staying at Liverpool – Hazard unhappy at Chelsea?
Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Suarez commits to Liverpool
Earlier in the season we put out an article discussing what Liverpool would have to do in order to keep the services of Luis Suarez. Despite his happiness at the club, the Anfield occupants would have to give him further reasons to commit his future to them – it appears they have done just that. Suarez has reportedly committed his long term future to Liverpool on the back of an outstanding season.
Voted the Player of the Year, leading the league in both goals and assists, the formation of an incredible attacking partnership with Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling and all while Liverpool are top of the league with a real chance to win it, there is no reason why Suarez should not remain. Not to mention that the club are finally back in the Champions League next season, the Brendan Rodgers project must be deemed a success and Suarez and company certainly will look to build on that in the coming seasons. The Uruguayan is crucial to any plans Rodgers has, and it is incredible to think about what if Suarez had left last summer to Arsenal when they lodged the 40m pound bid (and then the notorious 40,000,001 bid). Surely the wheels would have fallen off at the club and the success of this season would not have been possible.
Most importantly, Rodgers kept his promise that Suarez was crucial to the success he intended to bring to the club, most importantly getting them back into the Champions League. It is entirely possible that if Rodgers had failed in that task, that Suarez would have been off in the summer, most likely to Real Madrid or PSG.
Hazard unhappy?
On the back of their elimination in the Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea’s talisman Eden Hazard has publicly come out and criticized Chelsea’s tactics for much of this season, citing that Chelsea are not made to play football. It is no doubt that Hazard is unhappy with the way Chelsea deployed over the course of both legs against Atletico Madrid, where in both matches the Spanish side were far and away the better of the two – does this mean Hazard is unhappy enough that he may push for a move away from Stamford Bridge?
Hazard is a very ambitious player, one who is without question one of the hottest young properties in world football and who has just finished picking up the Young Player of the Year award – he is not short of suiters should this be a signal of intent from his camp. His style on the pitch is very attack minded, and many times this season he has easily been singled out on the pitch due to a lack of support when Jose Mourinho chooses to play defensively. Just last night, half the fouls Chelsea suffered were on Hazard himself as he routinely was the only threat going forward.
For a side that has a wealth of attacking talent at its disposal, personally I can understand why he would be frustrated. Other than Hazard, Chelsea have Oscar, Willian, Andre Schurrle and Mohamed Salah on the books as attacking midfielders – these are all players who have loads of quality who can shine brightly if given consistent license to be expressive in the attack.
The young Belgian without question has the ability and the persona to propel himself to the tier that is currently occupied by Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but to do that successfully, he must play for a club that takes the leash off of him every match and lets him be at his best. While he easily could be at Chelsea next season, if there is no adaptation of Mourinho’s tactics, I would not be shocked if he sought a move away from Chelsea the following season.