Who was better in their prime: Sadio Mane or Eden Hazard?...CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
That’s the question that a lot of football fans are asking now that it looks as though both players have banked their statistics, output and records in the Premier League.
Hazard looks set to plough on at Real Madrid having waved goodbye to English shores in 2019 and Mane is now just a confirmation tweet away from being ratified as a Bayern Munich player.
Mane vs Hazard
And while there’s still a chance that either or both of the legendary wingers might still return to England’s top-flight one day, it’s highly likely that their primes will have passed them by at that point.
In which case, so be it, because we’ve been lucky to see both Hazard and Mane grace the Premier League with what will already be considered as the zeniths of their star-studded careers.
Now, that’s all well and good, but we need to return to our original question because Mane’s Anfield departure has seen him dragged into the Hazard debate that Mohamed Salah knows all-too well.
Where was Sadio Mane born?
Both ourselves and supporters just can’t resist comparing top players from time to time and we couldn’t help digging into matters a bit deeper having seen the back and forth on social media.
Besides, in theory at least, we’re now set for life when it comes to the Mane vs Hazard debate in the Premier League and so the time has never been better than now to pull up their statistics.
And we tend to find that the most interesting way of crunching the numbers of two world-class stars is to have a look at how they matched up during their aforementioned primes.
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Comparing their prime statistics
Interestingly, too, there’s good reason to believe that Hazard and Mane both peaked during the 2018/19 season, which is where we will turn to try and find out who boasted the better stats in their pomp.
While, yes, Hazard might have bagged the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award in 2014/15, we’re inclined to think that it was his final year at Stamford Bridge that actually saw his finest performances.
It might not have reaped the Premier League title as it had done four years previously, but he produced both more goals and more assists during that campaign to land himself a Real Madrid move.
And as for Mane, it’s a pretty straightforward selection because he bagged the Premier League Golden Boot and Champions League title to earn himself a fourth-place finish in the Ballon d’Or.
But whose best was best? Well, let’s find out by using the Premier League website’s official player comparison tool to contrast the stats between Mane and Hazard’s prime seasons – check it out:
Hazard and Mane’s prime stats in the Premier League compared.
Put some respect on Mane’s name.
Mane holds his own
Maybe it’s just us, but we sometimes feel as though the Senegalese winger gets lost in the shuffle of legendary Premier League wingers because he’s so often compared unfavourably to Salah.
As such, there will be a lot of fans that will have expected Hazard to steamroll Mane in his prime, but that simply isn’t the case with both players going back and forth in a titanic statistical battle.
Hazard never scored as many Premier League goals in a season as Mane mustered in 2018/19, even if he runs riot in the assist standings by laying 14 more goals on a plate than his Liverpool rival.
Mane scores in his Liverpool prime.
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The Chelsea icon does hold his own in the attacking data despite having scored fewer goals, too, and enjoys something of a demolition job in the team-play standings with an array of fabulous passing stats.
But Mane was still dispossessed less frequently and provided more through balls, before reasserting himself in the defensive stats with a greater number of tackles, interceptions, clean sheets and more.
Overall, you’d maybe say that prime Hazard just about sneaks it with a more complete set of data – give or take his clear defensive weaknesses – but the fact that you could argue it either way speaks volumes.
Hazard is one of the most technically-gifted players that the Premier League has ever seen, so Mane going toe-to-toe with his best self shows just how much he’ll be missed in English football.