Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink tells players to 'look in the mirror' and show desire to turn season around

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Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink tells players to 'look in the mirror' and show desire to turn season around

The Dutchman, whose second stint in the Stamford Bridge dugout will begin with the visit of Watford on Boxing Day, spoke frankly at his first press conference on Wednesday and made it clear that his appointment is a result of the players’ failings on the pitch.

The defending Premier League champions have lost nine times in 16 Premier League games so far this term, a run of form which led to the dismissal of Jose Mourinho.



"I shouldn't be here, halfway into the season, because it means things aren't going well,” Hiddink said. “But I am glad to be back.”

"Yesterday I talked fully to the squad. I told them, things happen in football and I want them to look in the mirror, not just two seconds but longer, and see how they can contribute on the way up.

"I told them as professionals to look in the mirror and be ultra-critical. There must be desire to play. If you don't have it, knock on my door and we'll talk briefly.

"We have to show to ourselves, to the club and to the fans that the team has a big desire to wash away the last half year and go up to the next coming games. If we do that, the results will follow."

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The 69-year old, who has been appointed as interim manager until the end of the season, previously took charge of the club on a temporary basis for the final three months of the 2008/09 season.

That year, following Luiz Felipe Scolari’s sacking, Hiddink guided the Blues to a third-place finish and lifted the FA Cup.

This time around, he finds Chelsea lower down in the league table, with a fractious relationship between players and supporters, and admitted that it is “not easy to fix” the problems which have plagued the club since the start of the season.

“The future has to be determined by whoever is in charge.

“Let's go into the next few games and we'll see. I know it is always open but I'd like to end that a bit now, get into the games and then we'll see what happens,” he added.