Real Madrid assistant coach David Bettoni urged patience with Eden Hazard after the playmaker showed signs of his best in a win over Deportivo Alaves.
Hazard has struggled to find his best form since arriving at Madrid from Chelsea in 2019, but he scored once and set up another in Saturday s 4-1 LaLiga victory.
The 30-year-old scored and assisted in a single game for Madrid for just the second time and first since October 2019 before coming off just after the hour-mark.
Bettoni, who took charge for the game after Zinedine Zidane tested positive for coronavirus, said Hazard needed time.
I think Eden has had a tough season and a half with Real Madrid, he told a news conference.
We have to be patient with him, although obviously in football and especially at Real Madrid, we don t really have time to be that patient but with Eden I think we have to be.
He had a very good game, scoring a goal and getting an assist and I think we ll see the best of him eventually. We saw a little bit of that today.
Casemiro and Karim Benzema scored before Hazard s strike, only for Joselu to pull a goal back for Alaves.
But Benzema sealed Madrid s win after Hazard came off, the Frenchman reaching at least 15 goals in all competitions for the 10th time in the past 11 seasons with the LaLiga giants.
HALA MADRID!
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden)
Bettoni explained his decision to introduce Vinicius Junior in place of Hazard was a tactical choice.
It was a change because we wanted to bring on Vinicius to give us a bit more pace, he said.
I think Hazard had a very good hour on the pitch and it was basically just to change things, to add a bit more pace to the front three and nothing more than that.
Madrid are second in LaLiga, four points behind Atletico Madrid, who have played two fewer games.
