Antonio Rudiger has warned Chelsea are becoming too reliant on Eden Hazard and has called on his teammates to contribute more goals for the club.
Despite being slowly eased onto the side by Maurizio Sarri, Hazard has been in irresistible form for the Blues this season and has once again netted in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
While the Belgian ace has been consistently the west London side’s best performer over the past couple of years, Hazard has further added a certain ruthlessness in front of goal that was recently lacking in the previous campaigns. He has now taken his tally to seven goals in eight league appearances for the Stamford Bridge outfit, while also adding a further two assists.
Yet while the 27-year-old has been enjoying a red-hot scoring form, this has been counteracted by the poor goalscoring records of Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud. The two main forwards of Chelsea shares just one goal this season. Morata struck against Arsenal in the Blues’ second match of the campaign while Giroud, who has been described as the perfect foil by Hazard, is yet to open his account for the west London club in the current campaign. Next to Hazard in Chelsea’s goalscoring charts this campaign is Pedro, who is at a distant three goals.
Rudiger has raised alarm at Chelsea’s overreliance on the Belgian winger to turn matches on its head while also calling on his teammates to help ease the burden on Hazard to notch the goals for Sarri’s side. “We need to learn to kill matches. It’s not only on Eden’s shoulders. We need the other players to help him with scoring,” said the German central defender.
“He has been doing his job very well again, but the other guys must score too – Giroud, Morata, Willian have to score. As a team all of us have to provide more goals, the defenders as well.
“At the end of the day the best scorers are Hazard and Pedro, but with the quality of players we have on the pitch, it’s (the lack of goals from elsewhere) not too good.”
