Wednesday, 31st October, 2012
Former Genk coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck believes that Kevin De Bruyne is a much more complete player than Eden Hazard.
Both Belgian talents are under contract to Champions League winners Chelsea but, while the Blues chose to hand Hazard a central role upon his €40M arrival from French side Lille in the summer, De Bruyne was shipped off for his second loan spell.
De Bruyne was signed by Chelsea in January 2012 from Genk, but instantly loaned back to the Belgian outfit to finish the season in his native country; this summer the midfielder was sent to Bundesliga club Werder Bremen on a season-long loan – and he is excelling in Germany.
Hazard has made a splash too, rampaging past players in the Premier League and forming part of a deadly attacking trio with Oscar and Juan Mata.
For Vanhaezebrouck though, who coached De Bruyne at Genk, his pupil is the more complete player out of the two, with Hazard having limitations which De Bruyne does not.
"Everyone knew that De Bruyne was a great talent. Hans [Visser] [former Genk youth team coach, ed.] more than the others because he worked with him for two years in the youth ranks", Vanhaezebrouck told Sportmagazine.
relatedNewsStory"Kevin is much more complete than Hazard", he continued.
"He has a more extensive repertoire: he can play it left and right, short and long. He can dribble, make time and space and score from long distances.
"He can play on the left, on the right or in the middle and also be the second defensive midfielder alongside [Axel] Witsel [for Belgium].
"Hazard is more like human lightening, he is able to go past one or two men and hit a difficult long pass.
"But he rarely plays it diagonally, his vision of the game is limited to areas in front of him and his awareness is less."
It remains to be seen whether Chelsea will play De Bruyne and Hazard in the same team next season, but with both players still in their youth, they could eventually form a devastating double act at Stamford Bridge.
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