Eden Hazard was unsure whether he would have liked to have been managed by Pep Guardiola during his career.
The Belgian legend had the privilege of being coached by elite managers like Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte at Chelsea as well as Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid.
However, in some ways, it is a shame that a player with as much flair as Eden Hazard never had the opportunity to work with Pep Guardiola.
Eden Hazard says he is unsure if he would have liked to work with Pep Guardiola
Apart from Messi, Hazard would have had a case for being on par with the most technical players Guardiola has ever had at his disposal, be it at Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City.
But when Eden Hazard was questioned about whether he would have loved to have been coached by Pep Guardiola, he admitted he was unsure.
“I don’t know”, he said on The Obi One Podcast.
“This guy demand you a lot.”
Eden Hazard emphasised that he likes his freedom and he reckons Pep Guardiola might have been quite stringent with him.
“Me, as a player, I like my freedom. If you ask me to, ‘Then, you have to stay there’, I was like, ‘What? I’m not going to stay there. Are you crazy or what?’ So, I think he’s the best in the world.”
“But I don’t know, if you play under him, I don’t have the explanation for this, I can’t say yes or no.”
“Give me the freedom and I’ll win games.”
Pep Guardiola would have taken the Belgian to another level
In our view, if Pep Guardiola had got his hands on Eden Hazard, he would have become double the player he ended up becoming.
Much like Guardiola has managed to do with other wingers in his career such as Villa, Sterling and Pedro, he would have turned Hazard into an output machine.
Especially as a goalscorer, considering the retired forward only managed to score 20 league goals once in his career during Lille’s Ligue 1-winning campaign in 2012.
With Eden Hazard being a technical genius, one of the best dribblers of his generation and an outstanding creator, the Spaniard’s input would have allowed him to become a consistent goalscorer while also improving his understanding of the game, as he has done with every player he has coached.
But alas, the pair never crossed paths.
