Chelsea vs Aston Villa: Jose Mourinho confirms decision to drop Eden Hazard was for 'tactical' reasons
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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he left Eden Hazard out of Saturday's victory over Aston Villa for tactical reasons.
The Belgian, who won Player of the Year awards from both the PFA and the Football Writers' Association last year, has been one of many at Stamford Bridge to have struggled for form this season.
Hazard has not scored for his club this season, despite notching in every game for his country.
Unlike other high-profile names at the club like John Terry and Nemanja Matic, Hazard had yet to be dropped.
However, Mourinho, who recently promised to be 'ruthless' when it came to team selection, finally decided to relegate the winger to the bench on Saturday.
"I left out Hazard because we are conceding lots of goals," he said. "We needed more stability and effort to help make the team more solid.
"I like quality, but when you don't have the ball you don't have quality. And you don't have control.
"It was a tactical decision I felt we had to make and I told the players that this was not the time to be selfish and think only of themselves and be selfish," Mourinho continued.
"This has to be a moment for the team and nothing else.
"I want them to look at the bigger picture to get the results we need back. Once we have done thast we can then go back to what we were before.
"When the confidence is a bit low as it has been the quality goes down also. This was not a brilliant performance today, but it was a solid one. We sought more stability and control and we got it."
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