Hazard urges Chelsea to drop the striker search, offers to battle Morata for number 9

Eden Hazard celebrating his goal against Brighton [Photo: Courtesy]

Chelsea’s ‘little men’ stepped in to gift the club a win after a lengthy spell of draws. But the incident perhaps depicted that the game has advanced beyond entrusting a gigantic classic number 9 to do the job- little ones can also step in

Blues supporters might have wondered after watching Eden Hazard and co run riot at the Amex.

The Belgian, who cited Manchester City as an example that small can be beautiful, and Chris Hughton certainly did.

For now, Chelsea are still chasing another striker this month to give Antonio Conte an alternative option up front and the list of target-men on their January wish list is growing by the day.

First Andy Carroll, then Peter Crouch and Fernando Llorente and most recently Eden Dzeko and Islam Slimani.

Their determination to land one to give Conte genuine competition for Alvaro Morata, who was suspended against Brighton and has also gone off the boil, is understandable.

A traditional “point of reference” No.9 is central to Conte’s philosophy and the Italian’s CV speaks for itself.

On top of that some of the lightning quick combination play and counter attacks involving Chelsea’s diddy men and Michy Batshuayi, who is hardly a giant, was a real joy to watch.

Chelsea’s second goal, an eight-touch move finished by Willian with the final two passes being brilliant back-heels from Hazard and Batshuayi, was one of the goals of the season.

Hazard said: “Who is the best team this year? Man City. The strikers, Jesus and Aguero, are not big. It’s simple. It depends how you want to play.

“If you want to play with long balls you need a target man, if you want to keep the ball on the floor you need a small guy. It depends how you want to play.

“When you see the second goal with Willian, it’s one of the best of the season because we create movement with one touch, one touch, and then the finishing is good. We want to do more like this.

“Football is simple - keep the ball on the ground and try [to play] like we did. I think we have two very good strikers in Alvaro and Michy.

“If they are not ready to play I can play striker, so I don’t think we need [another one].

“Because we are missing chances people are saying we need another striker, but if we are scoring goals we are the best attack in the league and no one can say we need a striker.

“It depends on the form of the team and I think we’re happy with the team we have.”

Conte praised Batshuayi for how he stood in for Morata and led the line at Brighton.

But his struggle for minutes and Chelsea’s interest in other strikers underlines the feeling he has yet to truly earn Conte’s trust.

In fact, it remains possible that he will be sacrificed to allow them to bring in a new face.

Either way, Chelsea didn’t look like a side in need of a towering striker to beaten boss Chris Hughton.

He said: “Urm, no! They have wonderful options. We weren’t quite sure what they would do up front but you know they have players in Pedro, Hazard, Willian that if they are not playing a classic number nine can do wonderful jobs and be as effective.

“It’s a different type of games and in some ways those type of players are more difficult to mark than your classic number nines.”

Conte has always preferred tall players modeled to be natural number 9. Examples can include when he used Alvaro Morata and Fernando Llorente during his stint at Juventus also be adopting 3-4-3. While coaching the Italian national team, Conte used Simone Zaza, Mario Balotteli and Graziano Pelle who are all tall, built athletes.

However, approaches to the game have drastically changed with many teams going for the small strikers. Atletico Madrid have flourished by occasionally deploying Antoinne Griezmann forward same as Juventus with Paulo Dybala. Conte once experimented with Pedro, Hazard and Willian last season and the trio gave him a resounding victory over Everton.