Why Hazard can’t lay a claim to the crown of genuine greats

Neymar picked up the ball on the left and, seeing no way directly forward, began to swiftly traverse the pitch, seeking an angle to slip the ball through.

Immediately, he encountered resistance. James Milner, Jordan Henderson, the stars of Liverpool’s victory over Paris Saint-Germain, both tried to leave one on him. They couldn’t get near.

Neymar skipped and swerved, sashayed and shimmied. By the time he finished he was on the opposite flank, a little further ahead than when he started — but what a journey it had been. His pass was over-hit, and the move ended, but even so. That was some warning.

The match was only minutes old and a player who would seek acclaim as the finest in the world was up for it. If he could pick out Kylian Mbappe or Edinson Cavani, this might be a long night for Liverpool.

Yet in those opening minutes, the effort needed to get away had shown it was going to take a lot of hard yakka, as the Australians say. And Neymar didn’t fancy that. So it was pretty much the last we saw of him at Anfield.

That’s the point with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and those who would lay claim to their crown. It is never too much for them. No amount of work. No amount of running. Match after match. Season after season.

They would have found it hard going against Liverpool, too, playing at this intensity, but they would have kept on.

People think a tackle from Milner knocked Neymar out of the game, and it was certainly eye-catching and ferocious, a real statement of intent. But he’s from Brazil. He grew up playing against some of the most ruthless defending on the planet. A whack is nothing new.

It was more than that. It was the other 89 or so minutes that was going to hurt. The unrelenting commitment needed to beat Liverpool. That is what he didn’t fancy. It is the same with Eden Hazard. In brilliant form this season, obviously.

He was top of the charts for runs with the ball from the first game, and he only played 14 minutes of that, at Huddersfield. Yet one season on, one season off isn’t the pattern of the best player in the world, either, and that is the way Hazard’s form has progressed across roughly four seasons.

He was brilliant when Chelsea won the title under Jose Mourinho, and then disappeared in the next campaign. He was outstanding in Antonio Conte’s title-winning first year, disappointing as Chelsea trailed off in his second.

Now it looks as if we are going to see the best of him again. And, obviously, the best of Hazard can be the best of just about any footballer on the planet. Yet Messi and Ronaldo?

That was a different level of best, a new journey into exceptional grades of consistency and excellence. Ronaldo: 33 goals, 53 goals, 60, 55, 51, 61, 51, 42, 44. Messi: 40 goals or more in every campaign since 2007-08 — and 61 across the two seasons before that. And sure, some years will be better than others. But none fade into irrelevance.

None resemble Hazard’s 2015-16, when he didn’t score a Premier League goal until April 23 and found the net as many times for Belgium in 10 games as he did for Chelsea in 43.

This isn’t about Hazard being left at home for Chelsea’s match with PAOK Salonika on Thursday night, either. Even if Messi and Ronaldo’s clubs knew what the Europa League was these days, they wouldn’t play them in it, not the group stage. Hazard said he felt tired and that is to be respected. He is too valuable to risk.

If we know anything of Chelsea these last few years it is that, without him, they can be made to look rather ordinary.

It is no coincidence that in the two seasons when Hazard dipped, his club finished outside the Champions League places and Maurizio Sarri was masterful in easing him back into competition this season, after his exertions at the World Cup. Great players need protecting.

Yet the greatest, strangely, get little special treatment at all. Ronaldo has played less than 40 games for his club in one season since 2002-03, Messi has hit 40 as a minimum every year since playing 36 times in 2006-07.

Hazard has averaged 49 club games in his last 10 full seasons, which is impressive; except Ronaldo averages 49.1 and Messi 52.7. And no breaks, no breathers, no evenings when they simply did not fancy outrunning James Milner, no years when their team-mates had to go it alone. That is why the debate around the heirs to Messi and Ronaldo is, for now at least, moot.

One day, there may be others but at this point, they have raised the bar to a standard that no one is prepared to reach, or attempt. Not every week, anyway.