Guus Hiddink has revealed that he decided to change Jose Mourinho’s tactics in order to get the best out of hot-headed target man Diego Costa.

The striker made headlines for the wrong reasons once again this week after his fiery altercation with Everton midfielder Gareth Barry resulted in a red card and a charge for improper conduct.

Hiddink confronted Costa about his controversial antics when he first took charge of the Stamford Bridge club in December but the message appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Costa has missed out on Vicente Del Bosque’s Spain squad for a second time because of bad behaviour but the striker has played brilliantly since the turn of the year.

Despite his worrying temperament, Costa has played a part in 12 of Chelsea’s 22 Premier League goals under Hiddink, scoring eight and assisting four.

Fired up: Diego Costa

And the Dutchman revealed that a change in tactics are behind the forward’s contribution after being urged to follow the ‘Didier Drogba blueprint’ that was introduced when Hiddink first took over in 2009.

He said: “I had a pre-set mind about Diego Costa before I started, because I follow football and especially Chelsea, and I said to him, why can’t you limit your game to what you’re good at?

“Focus on the good things and not the fuss that is not productive; that’s what I said in the beginning.”

“Tactically, in my opinion he was going too far out wide to the left and also back to half way line.

“He was often 40 yards away from the danger area but we have other players who can do that.

Didier Drogba's Chelsea career in pictures:

“But because of his high energy level he wanted to do everything, similar to Didier Drogba when I first came here.

“He was also coming into midfield but we also had these players like Lampard and Essien, who could do the creative play.

“It’s important to get the best out of players and Diego was working in too big a space so I said limit yourself to what you’re good at and lurk in and around the box.”

Read More: Catch up with Guus Hiddink's Chelsea press conference in full.

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