His 'injury' is really just as much speculation, if you ask me. I gave it a Google and it appears that all of these reports stemmed from Hazard and his father after he had endured a thoroughly underwhelming campaign. Hmmmmm.
He also missed 1,5 months for treatment of a hip injury towards the end of the campaign. Which makes the story quite plausible.
If you think he looked like he gave a feck last season then fair play to you; anyone with a set of eyes can see that there was clearly something wrong with his attitude on the pitch. Also, openly flirting with PSG is pretty poor form and not the sign of someone who had a good attitude at the time. But hey, you can continue to ignore these things if you wish.
Yes, I think he did give a feck. In the games I saw, Chelsea had massive problems in the transition from build up play to the final third. Hazard ran back a lot to help his team moving the ball forward. (In many situations giving the ball to Hazard
was the main part of build up.) So he shifted his position closer towards his own goal because his team simply needed that from him. As a result, he was drawn back into deep positions a lot, just like Chelsea's team was as a whole, and his impact in the final third was hampered.
A lot of the criticism I read after those games was about him not being decisive in the final third (and claiming lack of interest as the reason, of course). But they clearly hadn't noticed that he actually put in a lot of effort to make things happen.
That's why I suspect that whole 'clearly didn't give a feck' thing to be a myth, at least largely. Of course I saw only some games, people who followed every game will have a better overview. But that was my firm impression.
After all, you bizarrely said that I said something about him "playing at his best" which I never did. Players play through injuries, it happens, and if their form dips during that period then it's a valid excuse for not playing to their full capacity. But it's not an excuse for looking like you don't give a feck and stating that it would be "hard to say no" if PSG come calling. Seems kind of odd that he was so drastically out of form because of this 'hip injury' but it's now fully cleared up (all speculation) and he's back to his best, just as things are all rosy at Chelsea again. Big coincidence, I guess.
As explained above I neither agree with him looking disinterested, nor playing half as badly as many people claim.
All in all: The team being in a bad tactical shape, the coach being overreliant on his best player, him getting drawn out of position as a consequence, and all this while not really being fit - that mix of reasons sounds like a much better explanation for a bad season to me, than last year's POTY suddenly losing interest in playing efficient football.
Diego Costa wasn't half the player he is now. Pedro looked like he's finished and was laughed at a lot in this forum. Now they're doing fine. Did they lose interest too?
