Chelsea becoming overreliant on Eden Hazard as Antonio Rudiger urges strikers to step up and 'kill matches'

Simon Johnson1 October 2018

Antonio Rudiger has told his Chelsea team-mates that they all need to start scoring more goals to help ease the pressure on Eden Hazard.

The Belgium international found the net again in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday to take his tally this term to an impressive seven goals in eight appearances.

But Rudiger is concerned that Chelsea are becoming overreliant on Hazard to make the difference in matches and has urged everyone to try to contribute.

The rest of the squad have managed just 10 between them so far, with strikers Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud providing just one of those.

Rudiger told Standard Sport: “We need to learn to kill matches. It’s not only on Eden’s shoulders. We need the other players to help him with scoring.

“He has been doing his job very well again, but the other guys must score too – Giroud, Morata, Willian have to score. As a team all of us have to provide more goals, the defenders as well.

“At the end of the day the best scorers are Hazard and Pedro, but with the quality of players we have on the pitch, it’s (the lack of goals from elsewhere) not too good.”

Despite their finishing issues, Chelsea are the only team in the top flight still be unbeaten in all competitions. They trail defending champions Manchester City by only two points in the table and won their opening matches in the Europa League and Carabao Cup last month.

Their early consistent form has surprised new coach Maurizio Sarri, who warned they would experience ‘problems with results’ in the first few months of the campaign as the players adapted to a new formation and style of play.

When asked if he feels that Chelsea are ahead of schedule, Rudiger added: “Yes. We are going in the right direction. There is space to improve but I think we are doing well.

“We played against a top opponent in Liverpool on Saturday but we did quite well. It was disappointing to concede late on, but it was a fair result because they had chances as did we. It was an incredible goal by (Daniel) Sturridge to level the scores but we couldn’t do much about that.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Liverpool | 29/09/2018

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“It’s still early days. Of course not everything was going to be perfect after the new manager arrived. But it looks good. We are on the right path to get to where we want to be.”

Meanwhile, Cesar Azpilicueta is hoping to be confirmed as Chelsea’s new permanent captain this week. The Spain international has worn the armband in most of the matches with last season’s skipper Gary Cahill making just two appearances so far.

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