Eden Hazard and Willian 'suffered' under Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea tactics

Eden Hazard and Willian were among the Chelsea players to have "suffered" under former boss Maurizio Sarri, according to Blues legend Gianfranco Zola.

The Italian manager took charge of Chelsea in 2018 in a move that offered real excitement to the fans following the attractive, attacking football he implemented at former club Napoli.

Sarri lasted just one year with Chelsea, however, joining Juventus the following summer. And while the Italian endured a turbulent period with the club, a Europa League triumph - on top of a third-place Premier League finish - ultimately secured a successful spell.

And Zola - who played 299 games for the London club - believes the Chelsea players deserve praise for the professionalism they showed throughout the campaign.

"At the beginning the players were very much behind everything that we were saying, they were brilliant," Zola told beIN SPORTS.

"They were following everything, but then as the weeks passed due to the repetition and the amount of games they were playing, the players got tired and they also got bored in a way.

"But boring is part of our job. Sometimes you need to get bored but when you get bored you persist in what you're doing and you get better.

"They were talented players, like Hazard and Willian, players who know how to win games on their own, but they were suffering from the type of exercises and type of training we were doing - but it was necessary for the others," Zola added.

"I'll be honest, they were brilliant because they got bored, but they kept doing it throughout and that was the reason why when everyone was dropping we were going up towards the end."

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