Hazard: Chelsea's gameplan was ineffective

Cape Town - Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard reckons manager Antonio Conte didn't use him correctly in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.

The Blues opted to play a more direct passing game, but put Hazard up front, and the Belgian struggled to compete in the air with the City centre-backs.

Hazard only had a few touches in the game and failed to make an impact in a role he felt was unnatural to him. The defeat left Chelsea five points outside the Premier League's top four.

"I wouldn't have got a touch even if we played for three hours, even if we improved in the last 10 or 15 minutes," he said, according to Goal. "We were better with the ball, but we needed to do that during the whole match.

"For me personally, it's hard to play well if you only get the ball three times. But, when we got the ball, we had to use it better - we made the wrong choices."

"I was trying to jump, but it's not easy to win duels against Nicolas Otamendi and Aymeric Laporte," he added.

"We didn't play to our strengths today. If Morata or Giroud played, it would have been easier to play with long balls. I did my best.

"Conte put me up front, I tried to do my maximum, but I don't think we played a good match."