N'Golo Kante

[Vesper 29,014]

1 hour ago, communicate said:

I have no problem moving Kante because he is 30 and he will be too old by the time our youngster get to their prime age. 

But you need replacement and he better be good. People in the beginning of the season was excited about our team playing with kova + jorginho combination, but no one talked about zouma and Tomori performance, how much one on one that they won in order for us to stop conceding chances 

Kante is 28yo atEduardo Camavinga (Stade Rennais)m

he turns 30 next season, in early, early spring (end of March, 2021)

if he were already 30, there is zero chance we would get £100m or more for him thsi summer, which is why I want to cash in this summer

 

my top 5 DMF targets, in order

Eduardo Camavinga (insane potential and is a hybrid, can play further up the pitch, but this is so not a Chels buy, not under this shit board, so expect Real or Barca to snap him up and by 2025 he will be the best DMF on the planet, lolol)

Declan Rice (who Lamps wants, I think he is great too, can so live with this, downside is the high price but he is young, high quality and an England starter)

Thomas Partey (due to £42m RC, which is crazy low for him)

Florentino  (will be too expensive I fear, and for the money he will cost he is a dice roll)

Denis Zakaria

Bonus 

Wilfred Ndidi, but there is no way Leicester will give him up in the summer, I would take him over every other one but Camavinga and Rice

 

Boubakary Soumaré's take on stats are HORRID

2nd worst amongst MFers in Ligue 1 for the first half of the season

that is not a good thing for a DMF

I need to watch him more and also have someone lay out a case for him

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

God help us if this is the decline.

[NikkiCFC 8,049]

Can he pass medicals in the new club? 

[Special Juan 27,439]

I'd sell him in all honesty, rape the life out of another club for the biggest fee possible.

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Vesper 29,014]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

sell him!

ffs

[Tomo 21,733]

Two years ago this would have been catastrophic, now I think being forced to revert to Jorgi, Kova, Mason will inadvertedly turn our fortunes around somewhat.

If we go back to dominating games with them three (especially if one of those games is Bayern) and Kante walks back in then.....

[NikkiCFC 8,049]

Better without him even in big games. 

Sell. 

[Vesper 29,014]

Happy Birthday N'Golo

 

Now,

Time to sell

[Vesper 29,014]

Kante is 29, wasted in Chelsea’s 4-3-3 and their best-paid player. What’s next?

https://theathletic.com/1739690/2020/04/13/kante-chelsea-best-role-future-lampard/

Asked at his unveiling as Chelsea head coach last summer if he knew where he would deploy N’Golo Kante, Frank Lampard simply laughed and said he did.

His conclusion, clear for all to see on the pitch this season, was strikingly similar to the one Maurizio Sarri reached in 2018-19: that the tireless Frenchman is best maximised shuttling up and down on the right of a midfield three, with instruction to dart into the opposition penalty area whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Kante’s 2019-20 campaign has been too disrupted by injury for his role to become a constant source of debate but his effectiveness in Lampard’s system will be one of the most important questions for Chelsea to consider when football resumes, both for the rest of this season and beyond.

The most interesting thing about the conclusion that Sarri and Lampard reached is that it is something of a departure from the role that powered Kante’s rise to global renown. He won a World Cup with France and back-to-back Premier League titles with Leicester City and Chelsea operating as part of a double pivot in midfield.

Chelsea under Sarri — and now Lampard — have performed best in a 4-3-3 formation, though the latter’s version has been given a more youthful flavour by this season’s vibrant wave of Cobham academy graduates. Kante’s change of role within it may seem a subtle one but it has required considerable adjustment and there is evidence to suggest that it has blunted his impact at both ends of the pitch.

Having turned 29 last month, suffered from injuries more persistently than ever before, and with three years left to run on a contract that makes him comfortably the highest earner in the squad, Kante has reached a key moment in his Chelsea career. Both player and club need to find a way to maximise one another — or part on terms that are mutually beneficial.

Here, The Athletic asks: how do you solve a problem like N’Golo?

---

Lampard has lined Chelsea up in a 4-3-3 formation in 15 out of 29 games in the Premier League this season. In the others, he’s employed a two-man midfield in either a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-2-1. Kante has appeared in 18 league games for Chelsea this season — nine as part of a 4-3-3 and nine in a double pivot in one of the two aforementioned formations.

That gives us a reasonable sample in which to put some numbers against how fans and the media perceive his performances in each.

Kante’s ability without the ball is what he’s best known for, so that’s where we’ll start. Considering how many tackles, interceptions and recoveries he makes per 1,000 opponent touches gives a decent indicator of how active he’s being defensively. All of the defensive metrics used in the table below have been possession adjusted (poss. adj.), counting how often each happens in every 1,000 opponent touches. This helps to try and reduce the impact of teams defending at different rates due to possessing high or low amounts of the ball. We can see that when he’s deployed in a midfield of two players, he’s far busier.

One fewer man in the middle of the pitch means more work for everyone else. This perhaps isn’t the most surprising result in itself but in the context of how Matteo Kovacic and Jorginho perform when also in a three-man midfield, Chelsea might have enough defensive effort without Kante in midfield.

What we see here is that Kante actually makes the least number of tackles of the three, with Jorginho hoovering up the most recoveries per 1,000 opponent touches. Looking at where these defensive actions take place does tell a bit of a different story though: Kante ventures into the opponent’s half slightly more on the right-hand side when playing in a two and covers the left side of the pitch too when playing in a three.

Three bodies in midfield is plenty to stifle the opposition supplying their attackers and the inclusion of someone as physically capable as Kante feels like overkill.

---

Under Lampard, Chelsea average 57.4 per cent possession on average, so although the midfield are required to shield the defence, supporting the attack is the primary function of whichever unit takes to the field. For that reason, retaining and progressing the ball and, sometimes, scoring, are the most valuable contributions required in Lampard’s system.

Lampard’s midfield options are relatively light in terms of goal threat. Jorginho (four, three from penalties), Kante (three) and Kovacic (one) have all chipped in with goals in the Premier League but the goal threat they carry is too few and far between.

Ross Barkley has put up good underlying numbers in limited minutes with 0.33 xG per 90 minutes played, the highest of the team’s midfielders and just ahead of Mason Mount. Mount’s first season with Chelsea’s first team has seen him score six goals while splitting his time between the wing and in midfield, and when playing in a 4-3-3, he’s threatened more than the main trio.

Goals may be in short supply from Chelsea’s midfield but, in recent seasons, few teams that play a 4-3-3 get many goals from that area of the pitch anyway.

The reason for setting up in the formation in the first place is to attack with three players in the final third, burdening them with the goalscoring needs of the team. Liverpool’s prolific trident of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah in recent seasons are the perfect example.

Of teams to have played 4-3-3 for 10 or more games in the last three seasons, Chelsea, under Lampard, sit fifth in terms of xG per 90 from midfield. Above them are all three of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City teams and Manchester United’s 2017-18 side (think “Marouane Fellaini”).

Chelsea aren’t an overly poor side at creating chances from midfield but they are undoubtedly squeezing the most out of the pieces that they have. Perhaps, therefore, the finger-pointing should not be at Kante and Chelsea’s midfield in the search for more goals but rather how they can better boost their options in the final third.

Willian has never been a prolific goalscorer and turns 32 in the summer. Christian Pulisic had a hugely promising first season at Stamford Bridge but struggled to stay fit. Fresh faces are due in the coming transfer window with Hakim Ziyech having already signed from Ajax, and with Olivier Giroud and Pedro coming to the end of their contracts. Further investment will be required.

---

Accepting that Chelsea’s main goal threat primarily needs to come from their attacking trident, the final piece of the puzzle is how Lampard’s midfield progresses the ball forward to the players tasked with doing the damage. In this area again, Kante’s numbers take a hit when he plays in a three-man midfield instead of in his more natural double pivot.

Part of the reason for this drop-off is simply due to there being more bodies in midfield; Kante gets fewer touches, dropping to 64 per 90 minutes from 88 per 90 when playing in a double pivot.

Likely due to tactical instructions from his manager to stay to his channel, Kante’s touch map when split between his games in a two-man vs three-man midfield show him covering less ground in a midfield trio, with his touches more concentrated on the right hand side.

Again, though, Kovacic and Jorginho seem to be able to handle the passing load themselves, with the table below showing their superior ball-progression abilities. These numbers may also help bust for good the myth that Jorginho is nothing more than a sideways passing merchant.

With both Kovacic and Jorginho, Chelsea have two very able passers and more than enough ball progression in the team when playing with at least one of them in a three-man midfield.

---

In a three-man midfield alongside Kovacic and Jorginho, it seems pretty clear that Kante’s opportunities to display his peerless destructive qualities are reduced. At the same time, expecting him to significantly ramp up his production in terms of scoring and ball progression from a more advanced role looks overly optimistic.

So what are the solutions?

The most obvious possibility is that if Lampard is not going to build his system around Kante, then there’s evidence to suggest that he’s actually surplus to requirements in his system. Chelsea are well stocked in midfield and competition for places will grow further when Ruben Loftus-Cheek — who counts goals and ball progression among his biggest strengths — makes his long-awaited return.

No one knows what the transfer window that follows the COVID-19 pandemic will look like, though many are expecting it to be a buyer’s market. If lobbying from major clubs and leagues results in UEFA relaxing or even suspending Financial Fair Play rules for a period, the select few who can count on super-rich benefactors — including Chelsea — could have a valuable edge.

But regardless of the position they find themselves in, Chelsea selling Kante at this juncture could make logical sense. Injury limited him to appearing in just 22 of his club’s 42 matches across all competitions prior to the football shutdown and, at 29, it is reasonable to wonder whether we have already watched his peak years.

Yet his talent and achievements should ensure these concerns do not put off potential suitors who regard themselves as one world-class piece away from winning the Champions League. The Athletic reported back in September that Real Madrid had expressed interest in Kante, while Paris Saint-Germain have admired him for several years.

Chelsea are unlikely to desperately need the cash but any vast transfer fee would give Lampard much greater flexibility in rebuilding this team around a dynamic young core. Liverpool have employed a similar strategy to spectacular effect over the past two years, using the windfall from Barcelona’s misguided mega-move for Phillipe Coutinho in January 2018 to take their own team to the next level.

A more left-field solution would be a change of position. Kante previously played right-back earlier in his career and a move there could accommodate a switch to the left for Cesar Azpilicueta, a more sound defensive option over Marcos Alonso and Emerson. That said, Chelsea’s long-standing interest in signing a new left-back makes such a switch potentially redundant and also blocks minutes for the highly-rated Reece James. Sometimes, squad management is like trying to make a bed with a sheet that’s too small — you can’t cover all corners.

Lastly, although Lampard has settled on 4-3-3 as his formation of choice, we’ve seen this year that Chelsea have switched things up based on player availability, form and opposition tactics. With the brief very much to compete on four fronts next season, perhaps Kante is happy to stick around and take the opportunities in his favoured two-man midfield as and when they arise, while Chelsea invest in a more traditional holding No 6 to partner him with.

There are plenty of routes that Lampard, Chelsea and Kante can take. The best will be one that helps the club compete at the top of the transfer market even if FFP regulations remain in place, making the most of the quality academy players they have coming through and maximising what they need from their midfield trio. Finding an optimum balance is the key to successfully managing any squad.

If that means all parties would be best served by Kante leaving Stamford Bridge, then it is a conversation that Lampard and Chelsea’s other key transfer decision-makers need to have.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

Kante is 29, wasted in Chelsea’s 4-3-3 and their best-paid player. What’s next?

https://theathletic.com/1739690/2020/04/13/kante-chelsea-best-role-future-lampard/

Asked at his unveiling as Chelsea head coach last summer if he knew where he would deploy N’Golo Kante, Frank Lampard simply laughed and said he did.

His conclusion, clear for all to see on the pitch this season, was strikingly similar to the one Maurizio Sarri reached in 2018-19: that the tireless Frenchman is best maximised shuttling up and down on the right of a midfield three, with instruction to dart into the opposition penalty area whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Kante’s 2019-20 campaign has been too disrupted by injury for his role to become a constant source of debate but his effectiveness in Lampard’s system will be one of the most important questions for Chelsea to consider when football resumes, both for the rest of this season and beyond.

The most interesting thing about the conclusion that Sarri and Lampard reached is that it is something of a departure from the role that powered Kante’s rise to global renown. He won a World Cup with France and back-to-back Premier League titles with Leicester City and Chelsea operating as part of a double pivot in midfield.

Chelsea under Sarri — and now Lampard — have performed best in a 4-3-3 formation, though the latter’s version has been given a more youthful flavour by this season’s vibrant wave of Cobham academy graduates. Kante’s change of role within it may seem a subtle one but it has required considerable adjustment and there is evidence to suggest that it has blunted his impact at both ends of the pitch.

Having turned 29 last month, suffered from injuries more persistently than ever before, and with three years left to run on a contract that makes him comfortably the highest earner in the squad, Kante has reached a key moment in his Chelsea career. Both player and club need to find a way to maximise one another — or part on terms that are mutually beneficial.

Here, The Athletic asks: how do you solve a problem like N’Golo?

---

Lampard has lined Chelsea up in a 4-3-3 formation in 15 out of 29 games in the Premier League this season. In the others, he’s employed a two-man midfield in either a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-2-1. Kante has appeared in 18 league games for Chelsea this season — nine as part of a 4-3-3 and nine in a double pivot in one of the two aforementioned formations.

That gives us a reasonable sample in which to put some numbers against how fans and the media perceive his performances in each.

Kante’s ability without the ball is what he’s best known for, so that’s where we’ll start. Considering how many tackles, interceptions and recoveries he makes per 1,000 opponent touches gives a decent indicator of how active he’s being defensively. All of the defensive metrics used in the table below have been possession adjusted (poss. adj.), counting how often each happens in every 1,000 opponent touches. This helps to try and reduce the impact of teams defending at different rates due to possessing high or low amounts of the ball. We can see that when he’s deployed in a midfield of two players, he’s far busier.

One fewer man in the middle of the pitch means more work for everyone else. This perhaps isn’t the most surprising result in itself but in the context of how Matteo Kovacic and Jorginho perform when also in a three-man midfield, Chelsea might have enough defensive effort without Kante in midfield.

What we see here is that Kante actually makes the least number of tackles of the three, with Jorginho hoovering up the most recoveries per 1,000 opponent touches. Looking at where these defensive actions take place does tell a bit of a different story though: Kante ventures into the opponent’s half slightly more on the right-hand side when playing in a two and covers the left side of the pitch too when playing in a three.

Three bodies in midfield is plenty to stifle the opposition supplying their attackers and the inclusion of someone as physically capable as Kante feels like overkill.

---

Under Lampard, Chelsea average 57.4 per cent possession on average, so although the midfield are required to shield the defence, supporting the attack is the primary function of whichever unit takes to the field. For that reason, retaining and progressing the ball and, sometimes, scoring, are the most valuable contributions required in Lampard’s system.

Lampard’s midfield options are relatively light in terms of goal threat. Jorginho (four, three from penalties), Kante (three) and Kovacic (one) have all chipped in with goals in the Premier League but the goal threat they carry is too few and far between.

Ross Barkley has put up good underlying numbers in limited minutes with 0.33 xG per 90 minutes played, the highest of the team’s midfielders and just ahead of Mason Mount. Mount’s first season with Chelsea’s first team has seen him score six goals while splitting his time between the wing and in midfield, and when playing in a 4-3-3, he’s threatened more than the main trio.

Goals may be in short supply from Chelsea’s midfield but, in recent seasons, few teams that play a 4-3-3 get many goals from that area of the pitch anyway.

The reason for setting up in the formation in the first place is to attack with three players in the final third, burdening them with the goalscoring needs of the team. Liverpool’s prolific trident of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah in recent seasons are the perfect example.

Of teams to have played 4-3-3 for 10 or more games in the last three seasons, Chelsea, under Lampard, sit fifth in terms of xG per 90 from midfield. Above them are all three of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City teams and Manchester United’s 2017-18 side (think “Marouane Fellaini”).

Chelsea aren’t an overly poor side at creating chances from midfield but they are undoubtedly squeezing the most out of the pieces that they have. Perhaps, therefore, the finger-pointing should not be at Kante and Chelsea’s midfield in the search for more goals but rather how they can better boost their options in the final third.

Willian has never been a prolific goalscorer and turns 32 in the summer. Christian Pulisic had a hugely promising first season at Stamford Bridge but struggled to stay fit. Fresh faces are due in the coming transfer window with Hakim Ziyech having already signed from Ajax, and with Olivier Giroud and Pedro coming to the end of their contracts. Further investment will be required.

---

Accepting that Chelsea’s main goal threat primarily needs to come from their attacking trident, the final piece of the puzzle is how Lampard’s midfield progresses the ball forward to the players tasked with doing the damage. In this area again, Kante’s numbers take a hit when he plays in a three-man midfield instead of in his more natural double pivot.

Part of the reason for this drop-off is simply due to there being more bodies in midfield; Kante gets fewer touches, dropping to 64 per 90 minutes from 88 per 90 when playing in a double pivot.

Likely due to tactical instructions from his manager to stay to his channel, Kante’s touch map when split between his games in a two-man vs three-man midfield show him covering less ground in a midfield trio, with his touches more concentrated on the right hand side.

Again, though, Kovacic and Jorginho seem to be able to handle the passing load themselves, with the table below showing their superior ball-progression abilities. These numbers may also help bust for good the myth that Jorginho is nothing more than a sideways passing merchant.

With both Kovacic and Jorginho, Chelsea have two very able passers and more than enough ball progression in the team when playing with at least one of them in a three-man midfield.

---

In a three-man midfield alongside Kovacic and Jorginho, it seems pretty clear that Kante’s opportunities to display his peerless destructive qualities are reduced. At the same time, expecting him to significantly ramp up his production in terms of scoring and ball progression from a more advanced role looks overly optimistic.

So what are the solutions?

The most obvious possibility is that if Lampard is not going to build his system around Kante, then there’s evidence to suggest that he’s actually surplus to requirements in his system. Chelsea are well stocked in midfield and competition for places will grow further when Ruben Loftus-Cheek — who counts goals and ball progression among his biggest strengths — makes his long-awaited return.

No one knows what the transfer window that follows the COVID-19 pandemic will look like, though many are expecting it to be a buyer’s market. If lobbying from major clubs and leagues results in UEFA relaxing or even suspending Financial Fair Play rules for a period, the select few who can count on super-rich benefactors — including Chelsea — could have a valuable edge.

But regardless of the position they find themselves in, Chelsea selling Kante at this juncture could make logical sense. Injury limited him to appearing in just 22 of his club’s 42 matches across all competitions prior to the football shutdown and, at 29, it is reasonable to wonder whether we have already watched his peak years.

Yet his talent and achievements should ensure these concerns do not put off potential suitors who regard themselves as one world-class piece away from winning the Champions League. The Athletic reported back in September that Real Madrid had expressed interest in Kante, while Paris Saint-Germain have admired him for several years.

Chelsea are unlikely to desperately need the cash but any vast transfer fee would give Lampard much greater flexibility in rebuilding this team around a dynamic young core. Liverpool have employed a similar strategy to spectacular effect over the past two years, using the windfall from Barcelona’s misguided mega-move for Phillipe Coutinho in January 2018 to take their own team to the next level.

A more left-field solution would be a change of position. Kante previously played right-back earlier in his career and a move there could accommodate a switch to the left for Cesar Azpilicueta, a more sound defensive option over Marcos Alonso and Emerson. That said, Chelsea’s long-standing interest in signing a new left-back makes such a switch potentially redundant and also blocks minutes for the highly-rated Reece James. Sometimes, squad management is like trying to make a bed with a sheet that’s too small — you can’t cover all corners.

Lastly, although Lampard has settled on 4-3-3 as his formation of choice, we’ve seen this year that Chelsea have switched things up based on player availability, form and opposition tactics. With the brief very much to compete on four fronts next season, perhaps Kante is happy to stick around and take the opportunities in his favoured two-man midfield as and when they arise, while Chelsea invest in a more traditional holding No 6 to partner him with.

There are plenty of routes that Lampard, Chelsea and Kante can take. The best will be one that helps the club compete at the top of the transfer market even if FFP regulations remain in place, making the most of the quality academy players they have coming through and maximising what they need from their midfield trio. Finding an optimum balance is the key to successfully managing any squad.

If that means all parties would be best served by Kante leaving Stamford Bridge, then it is a conversation that Lampard and Chelsea’s other key transfer decision-makers need to have.

This generated "interesting" discussion on Twitter yesterday... 

[MoroccanBlue 5,318]

He’d flourish in Italy 

[communicate 2,703]

11 hours ago, Jason said:

This generated "interesting" discussion on Twitter yesterday... 

I personally don't understand that he is being wasted and that you built team around kante imo that is crazy talk, it make no sense to build around destroyer.

The only reason that we should consider selling kante is because we have a young squad that is few years away from being ready to challenge. 

I don't think the article was good. "His conclusion, clear for all to see on the pitch this season, was strikingly similar to the one Maurizio Sarri reached in 2018-19: that the tireless Frenchman is best maximised shuttling up and down on the right of a midfield three, with instruction to dart into the opposition penalty area whenever the opportunity presents itself"

This is a wrong way to look at it. Why kante must play that role, it is because jorgi and kova can't attack the box, willian also can't do it, cho is not good at it. Imagine instead of having Jorginho and kova, we have Pogba or Cesc. There is no reason to ask Kante to consistently play as box to box, he can play as destroyer. 

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[OneMoSalah 8,783]

24 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Lampard ready to sell Kante basically? While he hasnt been at his best this season that is a bold and huge risk if you ask me. Even more so for somebody who has 2 years experience as a manager. Even at 29, having someone like that in the squad is always a good option to have. Plus you would say he is probably our best player on paper, what sort of sign does that send out, selling 2 of our biggest and best players in the past 2 seasons?

[killer1257 3,282]

 

70 mio. Euros? I want 100 mio. Euros for Kante

Gesendet von meinem SM-G920F mit Tapatalk

[Jase 43,479]

 

[NikkiCFC 8,049]

6 hours ago, killer1257 said:

70 mio. Euros? I want 100 mio. Euros for Kante

Marina is best at selling players so do not worry. She will get best possible deal.

Hazard one year left of contract we got 90m pounds plus 40m possible on add ons.

Oscar 60m.

Morata 50-60m.

Diego Costa in situation when Conte said he does not count on him and Diego said he wants only Atletico she still got us 60m from them.