Chelsea legend, Gianfranco Zola, has backed the club’s troubled star, Eden Hazard, to rediscover his superlative form that made him win the PFA Player of the Year last season.
Hazard has struggled to find his form of last term, where he scored 19 goals to help guide Chelsea both to the Premier League title and the League Cup.
The Italian wizard insists Hazard can become a better player if he uses his slump in form as a springboard to improve at Stamford Bridge.
With the Belgian and a host of other players underperforming for Jose Mourinho this term, it has lead to the defending Premier League champions finding themselves in an uncharacteristic 16th in the table.
And Zola, who became a Stamford Bridge icon during a successful period at the club between 1996 and 2003, compared the 24-year-old’s poor form to his second season with the Blues.
“Hazard is in a similar situation to when I was at Chelsea in my second year,” Zola said in the Evening Standard.
“The first year was very good, as it was for Hazard. He did so much; received so much recognition and now the spotlight is on him all the time and this is making everything he does a little more difficult.”
The ex-Napoli goal machine, who managed Watford in 2012-13, thinks this experience will put Hazard in good stead.
“Every player goes through this but in a way I think it will be good for him as it will make him think more about his game.
“So it’s an opportunity for him to become a better player. He is young and has the potential to be one of the best.”
Zola won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the UEFA Supercup, two FA Cups, the League Cup and the Community Shield during his time at Chelsea.
He was voted the Football Writers’ Player of the Year in the 1996–97 season and in 2003 he was voted Chelsea’s greatest player ever.
