N'Golo Kante

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

It was only Aston Villa but Kante played well in the lone DM role yesterday. Would be glad to be proven wrong if he can make that work in the long run. 

I thought he did generally okay (although I think us taking the lead and Villa having to open up naturally meant we played to his strengths more) but that movement leading up to the last free kick is exactly why I have my reservations about him playing there, he tried to proactively hunt the ball got turned and Grealish had a run on our defense.

I think going forward we should use him a similar way Conte used Cesc in the title winning season, even forgetting the tactical stuff he's at an age now where he and his engine need to be carefully managed, even more so given he's starting to become quite injury phrone.

[Special Juan 27,424]

Really good game from him yesterday, very good to see.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

I thought he did generally okay (although I think us taking the lead and Villa having to open up naturally meant we played to his strengths more) but that movement leading up to the last free kick is exactly why I have my reservations about him playing there, he tried to proactively hunt the ball got turned and Grealish had a run on our defense.

I put that situation down to James losing the ball for 5439573498543th time and putting the rest of the team in an awkward situation. 

[Superblue 6,370]

I definitely felt we looked much more solid in midfield yesterday. Kante was clearly sitting as the deeper of the midfielders and left us much more unexposed.

There were a couple of times particularly in the first half that Kante cut balls out that may have looked fairly innocuous but that was only because Kante covers ground quick over 5 - 10m. I really like the strengths that Jorginho brings but his lack of athleticism leaves us very vulnerable in that area and those sorts of situations are what usually leave us exposed to being countered.

I read a Lampard interview during lockdown where he said that he'd been studying a couple of areas in the team that he felt needed addressing and I wonder if this was one of them having somebody offering a bit more protection in front of the defence.

This does then raise questions whether Kante can fulfil a role of a deep playmaker like Jorginho can, but I do think it will allow at times for us to set up in a more attack minded setup with two attacking midfielders (e.g. two of Mount, Barkley and RLC, possibly Ziyech too next season) without leaving ourselves too exposed. Will be interesting to see if he continues with Kante in this role.

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

He shouldn't of played. Not the type of game for him. 

Maybe when we have more lethal options up top, Lampard will start to bench him on games like this given our conversion rate will be a lot higher. 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

With City pressing I think we would struggle a lot more to organize with Kante playing there.

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

4 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

With City pressing I think we would struggle a lot more to organize with Kante playing there.

I noticed that too. That was absolutely painful. Otherwise, Kante is actually a highly intelligent player in his off-the ball movement. Lets hope he was just a bit rusty. But these kind of mistakes are exactly what coaches are there to spot and iron out.

[communicate 2,703]

19 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

With City pressing I think we would struggle a lot more to organize with Kante playing there.

That is a bad clip though. Kante angle was not good but it was clear that Rudiger had clear angle to pass to Kante

[King Kante 1,474]

20 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

With City pressing I think we would struggle a lot more to organize with Kante playing there.

Personally, against City I see Gilmour/Jorgi (if still not banned) or Kova playing in the No.4 position. SFL hinted that Kante and RLC started as he wanted a little more physicality against Villa. 

[Vesper 28,774]

Kante’s display in win over City shows he can evolve into player Makelele became

https://theathletic.com/1897059/2020/06/28/ngolo-kante-claude-makelele-chelsea/

Chelsea’s first two matches of the Premier League restart have seen Frank Lampard deploy N’Golo Kante in the role that many people have always considered to be his best: as the deepest-lying of three midfielders, tasked with shielding his defence, winning the ball back and playing the passes that put his team in a position to control matches and create chances.

It’s not actually a position that Kante has played much at all during his career. In the Boulogne academy, he was a right-back before being shifted to central midfield, where he eventually forged his reputation at Caen as a “relayeur” or hard-running No 8, shuttling from box to box and racking up eye-catching numbers of tackles and interceptions, as well as the occasional goal.

His destructive talents appealed most to Leicester City who, as the former head of recruitment Steve Walsh only half-jokingly said, played “with Danny Drinkwater in the middle and Kante either side” during their run to the Premier League title in 2015-16. Antonio Conte used the Frenchman similarly in his spectacularly successful 3-4-3 system at Chelsea the following year, giving him a search-and-destroy brief alongside Nemanja Matic or Cesc Fabregas.

In between, Kante had spent time playing the No 6 role for Didier Deschamps in France’s unsuccessful Euro 2016 campaign. But within a few months of taking over from Conte as Chelsea coach in 2017-18, Maurizio Sarri made it clear that he saw things fundamentally differently. “I want to play a central midfielder who is a very technical player, so the centre midfielder is Jorginho or Fabregas,” he insisted. “I don’t want Kante in this position.”

Sarri kept Kante as a No 8, instructing him to link closely with Willian and Cesar Azpilicueta on Chelsea’s right flank and even to attack the penalty area whenever the opportunity arose, with decidedly mixed results. Before the shutdown, Lampard appeared to be of a similar mind, and Jorginho remained the passing hub of the team.

But the two most recent matches against Aston Villa and Manchester City have signalled a shift in Lampard’s thinking. With Jorginho suspended, Kante was picked to anchor the Chelsea midfield at Villa Park ahead of the emerging Billy Gilmour and he kept the job despite the availability of both players when Pep Guardiola’s team came to Stamford Bridge on Thursday.

Both games ended in Chelsea victories, with Kante an influential figure. But the results were achieved in very different ways, providing a useful insight into what he offers a team as the deepest-lying midfielder — as well as what he takes away.

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Kante registered numbers comparable with Jorginho or Gilmour against Villa. He touched the ball 97 times and completed 78 of his 90 attempted passes, an overall success rate of 86.7 per cent. In the opposition half — where most of the match was played, with Dean Smith’s team defending deep and looking to counterattack — the accuracy of his 64 attempted passes went up slightly to 87.5 per cent.

Half of his 78 completed passes went to Azpilicueta, Mateo Kovacic or Willian. Chelsea’s game plan was to overload Villa’s left flank, with Mason Mount frequently drifting across to increase the numerical superiority. Christian Pulisic’s equaliser came from a cross from Chelsea’s right, as did the majority of the team’s best chances. Kante did a reasonable job of setting the table for it.

Kante pass map v Aston Villa

There were times, however — particularly in the first half — when Kante’s less expansive instincts jarred. He is an accomplished, sensible passer who has improved his possession skills massively since joining Chelsea from Leicester in 2016. But his first instinct on receiving the ball from his defenders is to play safe passes backwards or sideways.

Against opponents as cautious as Villa, that instinct is unhelpful for building tempo and pressure. Here, as the ball rolls towards him from Antonio Rudiger, he quickly makes up his mind to play it with one touch to Andreas Christensen. Rudiger, however, has his arms outstretched and seems to be telling Kante he has more time and options than he realises: Kovacic is ready to receive the ball in space on the half-turn, while Azpilicueta is darting up the right wing.

The resulting pass to Christensen is far from a disaster — Chelsea keep the ball and the Dane has plenty of forward passing options to choose from — but nor does it force any kind of reaction from Villa’s massed defensive lines. One sharp pass rattled into the path of Kovacic, Azpilicueta or even Ruben Loftus-Cheek puts the team in position to move forward quickly.

This happened a few times against Villa, usually when Kante found himself pressed on the ball. What makes Jorginho so valued by his managers and Gilmour so promising is their determination to play forwards whenever possible, even when receiving the ball under severe pressure. The risk in what they do is greater but so too is the reward if they succeed, and they do so far more often than not.

On the other hand, Kante’s athleticism and defensive anticipation enable him to offer much more protection to his defence than Jorginho or Gilmour can. For most of the match, the majority of Villa’s attempts to counter were snuffed out before they had a chance to gather any momentum, and Chelsea were quick to foul danger man Jack Grealish whenever he got the ball in space.

The defining example of this came in injury time, with Chelsea leading 2-1 and Villa pushing desperately for an equaliser. Reece James lost possession in the opposition half and for the first and only time, Grealish managed to find himself behind Kante with room to drive directly at the visiting defence.

Kante reacts with lightning speed, racing Grealish to the area the Villa captain wants to attack, pressuring him into the path of Rudiger and bringing him down.

He takes a yellow card — for his third foul on Grealish in the 90 minutes — but he makes sure Chelsea win the game.

---

“We all know N’Golo’s attributes and he hasn’t really played as the deepest midfielder,” Lampard admitted in his press conference to preview the City match. “He has generally played as one of two or, in recent times, one of the more slightly offensive midfielders ahead of one deeper-lying midfielder.

“He has the attributes to do all roles — that’s one of the beauties of the way he plays. What he did was a lot of winning the ball back, being quick into the tackle, quick into the press, covering lots of ground and also being good on the ball.

“People can underestimate how good he is with the ball, how quickly he moves with it and can pass. It’s something we’ve worked on a little bit and it gives me good options to have different attributes in that deeper position.”

It soon became clear that Lampard’s decision to play Kante as a No 6 against Villa was a tactical rehearsal for the City match. Faced with an inevitable onslaught of Guardiola possession and pressing at Stamford Bridge, the destructive abilities of Chelsea’s defensive midfielder would be far more valuable than his ambition on the ball.

Kante was a big reason why Chelsea won. He touched the ball just 47 times and 24 of his 34 completed passes were to his back four. He was ultra-cautious, often playing the ball to Christensen or Rudiger even if slightly more progressive options were available.

But against a team as brilliant and relentless at pressing as City, simply evading and keeping the ball for a few more seconds is a form of victory. Many of the more expansive ideas Kante had failed to come off, but he did manage to shock the visitors shortly before half-time as this sharp left-footed pass took out three opponents to find the feet of Mount on the halfway line:

Mount immediately laid the ball off to Pulisic, who suddenly had a wealth of options: try a return pass down the line, slide a pass into the surging Kante or jink infield into a sea of space and drive at a backpedalling City defence. He chose the latter and built a dangerous Chelsea counter.

Christensen was widely hailed as Chelsea’s best defensive performer, and he did play a key role in limiting Guardiola’s team to just one shot on target all night. But it was Kante who marshalled the first line of defence, using his peerless nose for danger to harass and often nullify any City creator who dared to enter his zone of influence.

Here, in the first few minutes, he tracks false nine Bernardo Silva all the way back into his own penalty area to guard against a potential Riyad Mahrez cross, giving Chelsea almost a flat back five:

Mahrez ends up slightly misplacing his cross, and Kante is perfectly placed to clear it to safety.

Later in the first half, Rodri finds himself with an unusual amount of space in front of the Chelsea midfield. Mount and Ross Barkley are closer to him than Kante, but have Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva to worry about:

So the moment Rodri takes a second unchallenged touch, shifting the ball out of his feet and positioning his body to shoot, Kante takes responsibility. He darts forward, rapidly closing the distance and blocking the shot when it comes:

Two minutes later, he tracks Ilkay Gundogan’s progress into the Chelsea half, while keeping former Leicester team-mate Mahrez in his peripheral vision:

The moment Gundogan shifts his body to play the pass, Kante reacts, sprints to his right and crowds Mahrez as he receives the ball. The result is a free-kick.

In the second half, with City level and in the ascendancy, De Bruyne tries to lead a fast break. He’s got space in front of him, as well as both Raheem Sterling and Mahrez:

Kante applies pressure to the most dangerous player on the pitch without giving up a passing angle to Sterling or Mahrez. He succeeds in slowing De Bruyne and, by the time he commits to a challenge, he has forced the City man to turn away and pass backwards:

That wasn’t the last time Kante got the better of De Bruyne. Here he positions himself to guard against a pass into the feet of Sterling, while substitute David Silva quietly drifts behind him:

De Bruyne tries to find David Silva, but Kante cuts it out and controls the ball before sliding a simple pass to Willian on the right flank. The Brazilian escapes De Bruyne’s attempt at a tactical foul, surges down the wing and initiates the sequence of play that ultimately leads to Fernandinho’s goalline handball, the red card and the converted penalty that settles the match in Chelsea’s favour.

Lampard built the gameplan that gave City problems at the Etihad Stadium in November on the possession abilities of Jorginho and Kovacic, but the strategy that ultimately beat them at Stamford Bridge on Thursday simply wouldn’t have been possible without Kante in front of the defence.

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So where does this leave Chelsea and Kante? In light of the examples cited above, Lampard is likely to favour more progressive passers like Jorginho or Gilmour as his No 6 in matches that he expects to dominate possession against massed defences. If he does not, it is easy to see how a lack of urgency or creativity could hurt them again.

But it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kante returned to this role when Chelsea visit Anfield on July 18, particularly if Jurgen Klopp is inclined to field Liverpool’s strongest team. He is showing a much greater aptitude for the role than he did in the opening weeks of Conte’s reign, when Mesut Ozil gave him the runaround in a 3-0 win for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium that prompted the shift to 3-4-3.

Only time will tell if this is the start of Kante’s natural evolution into the kind of player Claude Makelele famously became in the latter half of his career or an occasional tactical switch. Either way, the fact that he can be decisive as a No 6 will only increase his value to Lampard.

[Vesper 28,774]

Lampard confirms Kante injury

https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/chelsea-news-today-lampard-havertz-18551922

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has confirmed that N’Golo Kante will miss Chelsea’s upcoming Premier League encounters with Crystal Palace and Sheffield United.

The Frenchman has been plagued by injuries during Lampard’s maiden season as Chelsea manager, and after playing a key role in Chelsea’s good form following the restart, pulled up against Watford on Saturday.

"Kante won't be in the squad," Lampard said. "Hurt his hamstring. A low-level hamstring, so we're hoping it is a week or so.

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

https://www.transfermarkt.com/ngolo-kante/verletzungen/spieler/225083

4th injury this season. He is 30 in 8 months. We dont have best role for him in this system. Without him this season in PL we have: 9 wins 2 draws 0 losses 

What are we waiting for?

[Jase 43,479]

 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

How many midfielders Conte need lol

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

On 7.7.2020 at 1:26 AM, NikkiCFC said:

https://www.transfermarkt.com/ngolo-kante/verletzungen/spieler/225083

4th injury this season. He is 30 in 8 months. We dont have best role for him in this system. Without him this season in PL we have: 9 wins 2 draws 0 losses 

What are we waiting for?

errr that statistic cant be right. we just lost yesterday without him. also we had more than 11 games without him iirc

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

1 minute ago, Magic Lamps said:

errr that statistic cant be right. we just lost yesterday without him. also we had more than 11 games without him iirc

Well, I posted this comment 5 days ago.

And stats are correct. Again only PL.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/ngolo-kante/leistungsdaten/spieler/225083

 

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

Well, I posted this comment 5 days ago.

And stats are correct. Again only PL.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/ngolo-kante/leistungsdaten/spieler/225083

 

ah thanks, my bad, i did not check  the date. feels completely different tho^^

[Puliiszola 519]

What's his exact status? Is he a possibility? I thought SFL said that he might have been available for the United game. 

Our top 4 literally depends on him and his availability. Don't want that assholic cunt jorginho to take field for us.