Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink refused to make a fake excuse of Ghanaian defender

Baba Rahman’s mistake in the first half of the game saw home team Southampton take the lead against Chelsea. A poor misplaced header from the former Kumasi Asante Kotoko player got into the path of Shane Long who chipped brilliantly to score the first goal of the game.

Guss Hiddink speaking to reporters after the game said he could make a fake excuse for hauling the Black Stars defender off in the second half of the game but he won’t as harsh decisions need to be made sometimes.

The Dutchman said in his post-match interview:

"I don't want to make a fake injury. I took him [Abdul Baba Rahman] off because of the error.

“He has to cope with that. He was very down in the locker room about his mistake, but we have to make decisions like we did.

“I don't like to personalize it but we have in the recent past also had problems in the defensive execution in that part of our team. I could wait and wait but sometimes you have to take decisions that can be very harsh.

“We'll have to cope with [potential confidence issues] and Kenedy did his job very well when he came in.”

Chelsea eventually won the game by two goals to one with Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic saving Abdul Baba Rahman’s blushes.

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