Eden Hazard is a ‘very good player’ but former player and director of football at Real Madrid Predrag Mijatovic does not believe he will be able to fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo. Madrid struggled to replace the Portuguese striker when he left for Juventus last summer having scored 450 goals in 438 appearances for Los Blancos over a nine-season spell at the club.
However, they finally completed an £88million deal to lure Hazard away from Chelsea this summer in the hope that he could achieve what Gareth Bale has not and help Madrid adapt to life after Ronaldo. But Mijatovic thinks that is impossible and for Hazard, yet to make his La Liga debut because of injury, it will simply be a case of getting used to the unique atmosphere around Real Madrid.
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Hazard appeared twice for Madrid in pre-season but then suffered a right thigh injury days before the start of the season in Spain. Zinedine Zidane’s men did not appear to miss him as they started their season with 3-1 victory over Celta Vigo – but they then laboured to a 1-1 draw with Valladolid on Saturday to leave them third in the table.
It will console the Madrid hierarchy that defending champions Barcelona have fared even worse, losing to Athletic Bilbao in their opening game. But they still have a mighty task if they are to reconquer the league in Spain; Barca have won four of the last five domestic titles. ‘[Madrid] is still a big team, with big players,’ added Mijatovic, who won the league in playing and non-playing roles at Madrid and scored the winner in a Champions League final. ‘The new players who came in, they have to adapt – that’s normal at such a big club. ‘This season probably won’t be easy – it’s never easy at Madrid with the pressure. ‘But I’m very optimistic that they’ll compete for titles, this won’t change.’