Hazard's Player Of The Year awards make it no surprise that he's seen a sizeable rating increase since FIFA 14, with the Belgian winger picking up no fewer than an additional three points to his overall score over the past year. The diminutive Belgian is defined by his phenomenal agility and dribbling ability, seemingly able to beat just about anyone with the ball at his feet and utterly fearless in going toe-to-toe with even the toughest and tallest opponent. Hazard's 17 goals last season was an improvement on his 13 from 2013/14, though perhaps not quite so great as to justify the size of his stats increase. Nevertheless, his performance in such games as Chelsea's home encounter vs Newcastle, when he scored an outstanding hat-trick, showed quite what an outstanding talent he is, particularly when opponents are foolish enough to give him room in which to manoeuver. At only 23 years old, Hazard is likely to develop very quickly into one of FIFA 15's premium talents, although that's also where I have some issues to bring to bear with how highly EA have rated him this time around. Hazard's form faded a little in the second half of the season as opponents began to assign a greater number of players to marking him - paying less attention, funnily enough, to the likes of Fernando Torres. Hazard is a great player, but for me still hasn't quite lived up to his sky-high reputation, tending to show his ability in flashes and sometimes going missing in difficult games. A single point increase to 86 might have been a more realistic reflection of his improvement last season, but that's nitpicking: one way or another, Chelsea fans will be delighted to see a world class talent continue to develop in their FIFA squad.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
