In his latest article for the Fancast, Simon Phillips outlines the significance of N’Golo Kante.
Although remaining unbeaten, Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea dropped their first points of the season on Sunday at West Ham, failing to break down a stubborn unit. Following the game, criticism surprisingly directed at N’Golo Kante’s lack of attacking prowess, which isn’t regarded as a strength of his. In this article, I aim to establish how Kante can continue to be his significant self for Maurizio Sarri.
This Chelsea midfield needs balance, that is key. Kante is limited going forward, hence the recent frustrations. But his job in that midfield is vital to maintaining balance. They can’t all be playmakers, you need ball winners in there as well, and his energy is so necessary for the defensive side of the midfield. Without him, we would concede a lot more goals, he covers errors and breaks up so many counter attacks. He’s also essential in the high press and carries the ball well on counter attacks.
A lot of people claim we should be using a Ross Barkley type creative player in Kante’s position instead, offering more going forward. I’d be more than willing to see a Barkley/Ruben Loftus-Cheek type in his position against lesser opposition, or even switch it to that if we are searching for a goal, like Sarri should have done yesterday. But for people to be calling Kante not good enough now is simply ludicrous.
And is anyone considering maybe Kante just had a bad game? Which should be forgiven after the form he’s been in since he signed from Leicester City. We all know that he is a good passer of the ball and since becoming a Chelsea player, he’s grown in confidence with the ball at his feet, that hasn’t changed. But because he perhaps gets a little dizzy in attacking areas, this isn’t playing to his strengths and has exposed his weaknesses (although, he doesn’t have many). This does not mean he can’t work there, and it certainly doesn’t mean he needs to swap roles with Jorginho or play ahead of him in the deep role.
Kante deserves every chance to prove his worth in that role, but we must not forget how crucial he already is there and how vital his attributes are for the balance of that midfield. We would see the flaws of having Barkley there instead of him if that happened, as there isn’t a midfielder on the planet as good as Kante for winning back possession and breaking up attacks.
For me, Kovacic should be the main attacking threat for the balance of our midfield. And although he has been neat and tidy, he needs to offer more. He needs to score more goals; he has even admitted that himself this morning. As it stands, I’d be picking Barkley for that role on current form and judging by the threat he has been offering in an attacking sense in the last few matches.
The most important point here though is that Chelsea DO NOT play with a defensive midfielder, they play with a deep-lying midfielder or a regista as it is more fashionably known as. The difference being he is a playmaker and not so much a ball winner. He will be orchestrating play from deep. Kante could do a job there as he would do anywhere on the pitch, but again this would not work to his strengths. I’ve seen so many calls to play Kante in his actual position as a defensive midfielder, but Chelsea don’t use one! We have seen already that Sarri sees Cesc Fabregas as the backup for the deep-lying role, not Kante.
Kante is a box to box midfielder in this system, but he adds the defensive aspect of the two more advanced centre midfielders, while the other one needs to be offering the more attacking elements, which he is not doing.
Can Kante get better offensively? Absolutely. He has played his whole career as a defensive midfielder, he’s learning a new role under a manager who demands his players to play in a certain way, and it will take time for him to get comfortable attacking. If Kante took just one of his chances yesterday, would I even be typing this article? Probably not.
We do need our midfielders to chip in with goals; we can’t rely just on the wingers. This is something that needs to be addressed. But we also need our strikers to take their chances. We can’t criticise Kante (not a natural goal scorer) for not getting a winner on Sunday when those around him whose main job is to score goals, are not doing it. He needs to improve in that area, yes, but for me, the onus is on the third midfielder to come up with more goals, and for the strikers to take chances. I’m sure N’Golo will scuff in a few more goals this season!
What are your thoughts? Let us know!
