Conte: Hazard like 'complete' player

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte feels Eden Hazard is becoming a ‘complete player’ after buying into the former Juventus coach’s tactics.

The Belgian, who failed to impress in Chelsea’s 10^th place finish last season, has bagged seven goals for the Pensioners this campaign, helping them to third in the league after a mediocre start to the season.

Hazard admitted this week that he met with Conte before the new-season started to discuss his future and was happy to stay on with the Blues.

“I like to see my players always involved in the project, in the idea of football,” Conte said.

“You can see Eden is always involved in the game, not calm and off during the game.

“He’s always a point of reference for his team-mates. I think he’s fantastic (at) this. If you want to pass the ball, he’s always in the right position to receive.

“To be a complete player you must do both phases, with the ball and without the ball. Eden is doing this and it’s fantastic.

“When we have the ball you can see that he can have freedom, but always to respect the other roles and the other two strikers, (Diego) Costa and Pedro.

“For this reason always there is a rotation of these three strikers.

“In this system Eden is working a lot without the ball, but in a position more ahead than before. And for him it’s better.

“For him (and) for Willian, for Pedro, also for Diego.”

Chelsea will climb to the summit of the Premier League if they overcome Middlesbrough on Sunday.

Setanta Sports is now eir Sport. We have 6 great channels of live sport including eir Sport 1 & 2 and all 4 BT Sport channels. The eir Sport pack is free to all eir broadband customers. To learn more about setting sport free visit www.eir.ie/sport .