Messi vs Hazard dribbling? Who is the best dribbler – Messi vs Hazard? Which player is best at dribbling? Hazard is considered to be one of the best Barcelona strikers ever. Can he be compared to Messi when it comes to dribbling?
Hazard and Lionel Messi are both quite similar in their dribbling skills. They both don’t use fancy tricks like step-overs and such.But they can both get past defenders with just a simple body feint or change of pace. The ball just sticks to their feet.
Now obviously, Lionel Messi is the better player overall. He has won the Ballon d’Or five times after all. But, in 2017, statistics revealed Hazard was actually the better dribbler with the ball than Messi.
How so? Well when the stats were published in 2017, Squawka revealed that Hazard had completed more take-ons than any other player in Europe since 2014/15.
As you can see below, Hazard had completed more successful dribbles past opponents than any other player. Hazard completed 388 successful dribbles compared to Lionel Messi’s 363 take-ons.
Most take-ons completed in Europe’s top 5 leagues since 2014/15:
Hazard (388)
Neymar (366)
Lionel Messi (363)
Wilfried Zaha (311) pic.twitter.com/VJEkh3IJEw— Squawka Football (@Squawka) March 10, 2017
But dribbling past opponents is all well and good but how influential were they in terms of the end product? Well Lionel Messi wins that battle easily. But here we look at the dribbling skills to find out why Hazard has been the best dribbler with the ball than any other player since 2014/15.
Hazard has been one of the best players for Barcelona and is in our all-time greatest Barcelona XI list.
Check out GTNation’s video of Hazard Vs Lionel Messi:
Well the simple answer is, no. Lionel Messi is by far the better player overall. The little Argentinian has scored more goals, made more assists and won more titles than Hazard. But the Belgian wins the Messi vs Hazard dribbling battle.
Although you can’t deny that the two players are very similar in terms of dribbling technique. In-fact, Belgium manager Roberto Martinez spoke to Goal back in 2017 about the Messi vs Hazard dribbling argument.
Martinez said: “What he does is quite unique. “It’s that acceleration and stopping and standing still. He reminds me a lot of Messi.”
“Not many players can control the moment and take the defenders where you want to take them. The way he uses the ball with his feet is sensational and what is surprising more than anything is his maturity.”
So we’ve looked at Messi vs Hazard dribbling comparisons so now we will look at overall stats. Here we look at the attacking stats from both Hazard and Lionel Messi. Stats have been taken from Transfermarkt and Whoscored.
Hazard goals: 16 goals in all competitions
Lionel Messi goals: 39 goals in all competitions
Winner: Lionel Messi has scored more goals than Hazard
Hazard assists: 11 assists
Lionel Messi assists: 21 assists
Winner: Lionel Messi has made more assists than Hazard
Hazard successful dribbles: 4.2 successful dribbles per-game
Lionel Messi successful dribbles per-game: 4.5 successful dribbles per-game
Winner: Lionel Messi has completed more successful dribbles per-game than Hazard in 2018/19.
Hazard: 184 minutes per goal
Lionel Messi: 77 minutes per goal
Winner: Lionel Messi has scored more goals per-minute than Hazard
Hazard pass completion: 87.4% pass-success rate
Lionel Messi pass completion: 86.2% pass-success rate
Winner: Hazard has made more successful passes than Lionel Messi.
Hazard key passes per-game: 2.8 key passes per-game
Lionel Messi key passes per-game: 3.3 key passes per-game
Winner: Hazard has made less key passes per-game than Lionel Messi.
Hazard’s market value: €105 million
Lionel Messi’s market value: €195 million
Winner: Lionel Messi has a higher market value than Hazard despite being 31-years-old while Hazard is 27-years-old.
Hazard individual awards:
Lionel Messi individual awards:
Winner: Lionel Messi easily wins as he has far more individual awards than Hazard.
Overall, statistics show that Lionel Messi is better than Hazard. But, the Belgian can still be proud that he beat the Argentinian in some categories. Plus Hazard has been the better dribbler statistically than Lionel Messi. Hazard has been the FC Barcelona Player of the Year multiple times too. But Lionel Messi is on another footballing realm compared to Hazard. Messi is, in my opinion, the best footballer ever. Yes even better than Pele, Maradona, George Best and Cristiano Ronaldo etc.
Lionel Messi is well on his way to becoming the winner for the best player for the 6th time now given his form.
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