5 of the best footballers and their one glaring weakness

#3 Eden Hazard – Goal-scoring

Hazard doesn't have the scoring instinct that a player like him should

What’s the reason that keeps Eden Hazard out of the contention for the Ballon d’Or? I mean, this is a guy that can do with an orange what many footballers can’t so with a football. He has astute dribbling abilities, has the vision to pick out the channels and the guile to make the killer balls through it.

When you watch him play, that’s the only thing you ask yourself: why hasn’t this guy been even on the Ballon d'Or podium yet? The answer to that, however, comes to you in the very same game.

August 2015. Manchester City vs Chelsea. The Citizens are leading one-nil with just a little over 20 minutes to go. Not a safe place to be when the Belgian picks out Diego Costa on the left in between Bacary Sagna and Vincent Kompany with a slick pass on the counter.

When you see the pass, you know that he has the vision to pick out his team-mate and the technique to execute the pass with perfection. However, that’s when you notice something odd about him; something that you never see in, say, Cristiano Ronaldo.

He passes it to the Spaniard and considers his job done. The former Lille man slows down his pace and just jogs forward rather passively. Costa is now stranded, but does incredibly well to fake a shot and send Kompany down the McDonald’s lane.

Now he sees Hazard at the edge of the D-box and passes it to him. Meanwhile, Eliquam Mangala catches up, but Hazard sends him the wrong way. Now, Kolarov catches up, but Hazard shoots it just a fraction of a second earlier – straight at Joe Hart.

You realise two things here. One, Hazard doesn’t have the goal-scoring instincts of someone like Cristiano Ronaldo. If he did, he would have zoomed in between Bacary Sagna and Mangala right after releasing the ball to Costa. That, in turn, would have allowed the former Atleti man to slide it sideways to the onrushing Belgian.

Which in turn would have allowed Hazard to take it first time with a clear view of the goal and no defender having the time to catch up.

And two: he is not the best of finishers. That move basically sums up why Hazard deserves to be up there with the elites and why he doesn’t.