Because of John Terry’s dramatic late equaliser against Everton at Stamford Bridge on the weekend, Chelsea kept their unbeaten streak since the sacking of Jose Mourinho, and the manager was assessing where the team is currently sitting at the moment.
On the one hand we are unbeaten since December, on the other hand we cannot be fully satisfied with all the results.
We have to make the next step and not drop back in consistency – one day good, one day bad, or half a game good and half a game bad. It’s something we have to work at but I see the players working with a lot of ambition for many days and also with confidence. I think we’ll see another very attractive game on Sunday. We will give it our utmost to get the result.
Speaking about the eventful game on the weekend, Hiddink admitted he was happy with the character that the team portrayed throughout the 90 minutes, to get back onto level terms twice – despite going 0-2 down. However, the Dutch boss is hugely aware that the Blues can improve defensively, reflecting on the stat of conceding five times in our last two games, which both came at Stamford Bridge.
Nowadays if you don’t defend well, starting up front, you can easily be outplayed because of the technical and tactical quality of the players,’ he explained.
In the early days you couldn’t be so easily outplayed tactically but now teams have that ability. If you don’t work with a lot of responsibility in your area, as a midfielder or a striker, then defending becomes a problem.
For example, if you analyse Everton’s third goal without emotion we were more or less paralysed at the back post. We talked about that and practised that. We must not repeat errors.
