Maurizio Sarri has warned Eden Hazard that he needs to improve and that he wants to see more from him from a tactical point of view.
The Chelsea winger is the club's top scorer with 13 goals in all competitions thus far in the 2018-19 campaign, although he hasn't been able to help the Blues' recent plight that has seen them lose their last two league matches.
Indeed, Sarri's side were hammered 4-0 by Bournemouth last time out as two goals from Josh King and one each for David Brooks and Charlie Daniels ensured Eddie Howe's man recorded an emphatic win over the Londoners.
Despite his standing as Chelsea's most important attacking player, Hazard has only managed one goal in his last eight outings in all competitions for the club.
And Sarri, who was left furious with the display at the Vitality Stadium and kept his side locked in the dressing room for an hour after full-time, wants to see more from the Belgian.
When asked if he's getting enough from Hazard, the Italian told reporters: "I think that he's changing. He was used to playing as an individual player. Now he has to play in a particular way. It's not easy for him because he became Hazard playing in another way, so I think very well it's not easy.
"But I can see that, now, he is more available to play in this way. He needs to improve, of course. That's normal. He's fantastic from the technical point of view, and I think he can do more tactically.
"At the moment, it's not easy for our striker to play in this team. As you know very well... We have a lot of individual players like Hazard, Willian and Pedro, so it's not easy for the striker to do the right movement at the right time.
"So we need to improve. In the last match, if we'd scored before our opponents, the match would have been really different."
Hazard's future at Stamford Bridge remains up in the air, with the 28-year-old having dropped frequent hints that he is interested in a move to Real Madrid.
Indeed, he has stalled on signing a new contract with the club, with his current deal ending in 2020, and it remains unclear if he will stay put or opt to move on when the summer transfer window opens.
One player that was acquired in January in an attempt to take the goalscoring burden off Hazard is Gonzalo Higuain, although the Argentine struggled in what was his Premier League debut in the defeat to Bournemouth.
And Sarri accepts that he is not yet at the required level, both fitness and performance-wise, but expects him to be a valuable asset for the Blues, when he's reached full match fitness.
He added: "At the moment, he's not at the very top, physically. In the last 45 days, he played a few matches only. Because of his back [injury], but also because of his involvement in the market.
"So he needs to improve because he is able to accelerate more than now. Then I think that, if he's able to improve physically, he will be able to be useful for us immediately."
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