Around Madrid, no one talks about Eden Hazard anymore, even if the team only scores one goal from set pieces in three games, as happened a week ago. The 32-year-old Belgian has long since disappeared from white conversations and he often doesn’t even warm up in matches. It took the former Chelsea man to say publicly that he does not speak to Carlo Ancelotti to revive, at least for one day, his case, the most expensive signing in the club’s history (115 million). “There is respect between us, but I am not going to say that we speak to each other because we do not speak to each other,” said the attacker in an interview with Belgian television RTBF, where he regretted the lack of minutes. He has not dressed in shorts since January 3 against Cacereño in the Cup, substituted in the 67th minute before another exercise of inaction that surprised even the rivals [de la Segunda Federación, cuarta categoría nacional]and in the League he has not appeared since September 11, against Mallorca.
They asked the Italian coach about the words of his footballer and, with his classic naturalness, he did not dodge the bulge. “Hazard has been very honest. We don’t talk much, I don’t talk much with him. It’s the truth. Because speaking is also a matter of character. You feel better with one person than another, including children. But this is not important to me. Even if we don’t talk much, even if I don’t play a lot, he respects me. This I value. As I respect him ”, Ancelotti developed this Tuesday.
However, when they asked him if he was part of their plans for next season, the white coach had to take several seconds of silence to find an answer that would not aggravate the wound. “I have the players that the club makes available to me,” he settled. Already the last times that Carletto had had to answer a question about Hazard in the press room, his answers had become more frugal. After assuring in the previous months that he would have more minutes and that, as he announced in preseason, he would prove it again. nine As a substitute for Benzema, the almost total absence of participation has made the lack of confidence in the Belgian undisguisable. “He does not play because there is a lot of competition and I do not have to hide that a footballer is in his position, Vinicius, who now contributes a lot,” Carletto dispatched.
10 classics, zero minutes
“My explanation for not playing? That there are teammates who play well, the team wins and so it is difficult to change it. Probably, I deserve less in their eyes than others. You should ask him. I hope I can contribute something. It is up to me to show him in training that he can count on me, ”Hazard pointed out in his talk with the Belgian outlet.
The attacker has one contract campaign left and has no intention of leaving. “I would like to stay. I understand the doubts around me, but for my part I would continue next year, ”he said in the interview. Arriving in March, his 296 minutes are only ahead of Odriozola (78), Vallejo (67) and Mariano (56). In the next three weeks there will be two classics, one in the League (Sunday, 9:00 p.m.) and the other in the Cup (April 5), and probably all the misfortune and frustration that the highest contracting at the Bernabéu has caused can be summed up in that Of the 10 clashes with Barcelona since he arrived in the summer of 2019, the Belgian has yet to play a second. He first landed overweight and then an endless sequence of physical problems after an injury caused by his compatriot Meunier in a Madrid-PSG game in November 2019 undermined his football. For now, hopelessly.
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