With Eden Hazard's arrival at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid are adding a player with many talents to their squad and one of those talents is dribbling.
The Belgian was ranked third in Europe's top five leagues for dribbles last season, only behind Sofiane Boufal of Celta Vigo and Nice's Allan Saint-Maximin.
Boufal racked up 144 and Saint-Maximin had 143, while Hazard came in with 138, even ahead of Lionel Messi's 134.
Although he's close but not quite top of this table, he does occupy the summit of another ranking as Hazard is successful 61.61 percent of the time he takes on an opponent, totalling at 224 attempts.
Messi again trails the former Chelsea player, completing 56.78 of his 236 attempts.
With the ball at his feet, then, there's few who can match Real Madrid's latest signing, who isn't arriving in the capital to replace Cristiano Ronaldo's 50 goals per season, but to instead give life to the attack which has at times seemed too slow since the Portuguese moved on.
Hazard will be an unbalancing factor and a player who can unlock opposing defences, creating space for himself and others to exploit.
His relationship with Karim Benzema will go a long way to determining whether or not next season is a success at the Bernabeu, but how he worked with Olivier Giroud at Chelsea suggests that Real Madrid fans could be in for a treat in 2019/20.
Scoring just 63 times in the league this season, Los Blancos have been left wanting in the final third and a tally this low doesn't accommodate for anything close to a title push, something Zinedine Zidane knows all too well.
Hazard is the man chosen to fix Real Madrid's problems and, if he's given the ball, there's no reason to suggest that he can't do it.
Shridharrai
118
messi is already 32 years old nd hazard is still 28...in his age messi dribbling was phenomenal ...no one had competed him when he was in his prime...bit now messi has changed his style of play very much ......after departure of iniesta nd Xavi he have to create chances,provide long through balls...he used to play more central now and only try yo dribble when it is necessary...he is very clever bcoz he knows in dribbling there always a risk of injury after brutal challenges..thats why he avoids dribbling a little bit these days ...but even without dribbling he has the same effect on the 90 min game..... but still he is giving a tough fight to hazard nd othe class dribblers in dribbling... simply great..
Nesaiknruy_Legend
35
Considering the level of opponent Hazard faces, it's a lot harder to constantly dribble them knowing that at least 90% of the league look to try and take him out. I dont even think Messi faces adversaries like that. I know he faces numbers of defenders but theres no way the La Liga defenders are as relentless and physical as the prem ones.... There maybe cases such as Bale but for that 1 case theres like hundreds of cases in the prem like Santi who after 1 injury never was the same for example. Hazard deserves a lot more respect than what people give him. Played for a team that has been weak for years in the most competitive league and with a play style that risks injury every game. The fact hes kept fit and and even had such a successful career is astonishing. Wish him the best at Madrid, I believe he will show everyone exactly what he is capable of in the La Liga....