Hiddink: We must take emotion out of Hazard analysis

Shirt-swapping silliness aside, Eden Hazard's current season at Chelsea deserves its fair share of criticism. While Hazard has shown glimpses of his customary brilliance throughout the season, they have been few and far between, and he's still far from the consistent threat on the flanks that he was in his first three seasons with the Blues.

Whether this is a mere blip in his career caused by mental and physical fatigue or a dramatic 'point of no return' for his Chelsea spell remains to be seen. Until then, manager Guus Hiddink and co. will make sure to put Hazard back (or somewhere close) to his once world-class form.

"Every now and then, I see [that Hazard] is capable of doing beautiful things. His father was humble but some players have difficult times, although they are trying. That's what he's doing in training."

"He likes to be on the pitch but it's a matter of when he gets back [to his best]. Most of the players ask for a little bit of help and there's a different approach to everyone."

"I'm happy some players have improved - I have some concerns about him and whether he should play for an hour or another part of the game. That's where I am trying to help him."

"There is always a lot of emotion when someone isn't playing as well [as they can]. When we take the emotion out, you can see [stats] and know how many accelerations he made. We try and find the way to get him [back] to his level."

-Guus Hiddink; Source: London Evening Standard

In his first spell with the Blues back in 2009, Hiddink won the FA Cup over Everton, who we will be facing tomorrow for the competition's quarterfinals. Hiddink said that the cup is important to everyone in the team, but they mustn't forget their focus on the Premier League even though relegation isn't a risk anymore.

"It's an important competition. It's not just for me, but for the players. It's the only one Cup in the world where it has the world's attention. Obviously it's an important Cup to go for, but I don't want to undervalue the classification in the Premier League. We managed to come from the [relegation] zone to 10th position."

"It might be difficult to get fourth but we are now facing a beautiful contest in Everton. There are some teams like Watford and West Ham, who are doing very well and are very strong and are knocking on the door for fourth, or at least fifth or sixth [place]."

"We cannot say the season is over. We can't think like that. If we have a big failure tomorrow, we must still concentrate on the league. We had a difficult loss [against PSG] but we don't have much time to recover physically."

"Psychologically and mentally it's a blow when you go out to a good team. The players must respond physically and be mentally resilient."

-Guus Hiddink; Source: London Evening Standard

Much speculation on who will be taking the managerial post at Chelsea next season , with most parts of the media now settling on Antonio Conte. Hiddink said that the Blues are ought to announce who will be taking charge of the club "as soon as possible", so a course of action in regards to the next season can be taken.

"It is best for all parties to do it as soon as possible, so we can plan for next season. It is just speculation, but if the club makes a project with the players they want, then yeah, it's difficult because I'm going into speculation but on the other hand Chelsea is a very attractive club to play for."

-Guus Hiddink; Source: Express

Unlike the Pep Guardiola-Manuel Pellegrini conundrum at Manchester City, an early announcement from Chelsea on who will be taking charge of the club next season probably wouldn't affect the team's spirits, as Hiddink has made it clear that he's only around for the remainder of the current campaign. Perhaps once Chelsea end their FA Cup run - with or without a title on their hands - we could finally confirm the name of the Blues' next manager.

Nonetheless, this season is a great example of how bad planning can impact even a club as big as we are. And we should make sure to avoid similar mistakes going forward.