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N’Golo Kante VS Fernandinho: Clash of the central midfielders

By Stephen Little

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Lionel Messi of Barcelona is tackled by Fernandinho of Manchester City during the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City FC and FC Barcelona at Etihad Stadium on November 1, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Lionel Messi of Barcelona is tackled by Fernandinho of Manchester City during the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City FC and FC Barcelona at Etihad Stadium on November 1, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images) /
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Much has been made of the contributions of N’Golo Kante to Leicester’s title win last season, but Fernandinho has slipped under the radar. With Chelsea and Manchester City meeting this weekend, we look at which is the better central midfielder.

For all the highs and lows a football team can find themselves enduring, nothing seems to deter a widespread focus on individual player’s accomplishments and subsequently blowing them out of proportion. This player single-handedly won this team the Premier League. This player, conversely, is so atrocious that his mere existence on the team-sheet is enough to ensure his team starts the campaign with a 12 point deficit.

So it is we have Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, an individual widely accredited by media and supporters alike to have carried a Leicester City team on his back all the way to being league champions last season. Let’s leave aside the questionable speculation that Kante alone was the catalyst, rather than a perfect storm of players, Kante included, playing together to great effect. That’s a history lesson now.

Joining Chelsea over the summer, the Frenchman found himself an easy, if not automatic, pick for Antonio Conte’s side. Sadly this has carried with it that dreaded confusion one can suffer if it so happens a match commentator with a thick accent is covering the game, for whom Kante and Conte sound exactly the same. That aside, he’s made a tremendous impact at his new club and shows signs of being the fuel behind the raging fire that has burned through the side in their last 7 games.

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This weekend though, Chelsea face their toughest test yet in Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. We’ve discussed elsewhere that City, despite not having the run of form that Chelsea have enjoyed, will shade the tactical advantage for the game and look in a strong position to capitalise. What’s more, City have a Kante of their own in the form of the perennially underrated Brazilian Fernandinho.

Both players have seen 13 appearances in the Premier League for their respective clubs this season, both playing a full 1170 minutes of football. Both also have seen their play predominantly in either Defensive Midfield or in a more Central Midfield role, serving more often as a pivot between the defence and  attacking midfielders. It seems only right, and fun, that we compare the two ahead of their meeting at the Etihad.

Fernandinho, at 31, is 6 years older than Kante which carries with it likely more disadvantages than advantages, yet statistically holds his own and more. While Kante’s pass completion percentage is roughly 4% higher so far this season, Fernandinho has made some 6 passes more on average per game and his rate of key passes per game is higher as well (0.7 vs 1.1). It’s to be expected that if you make more passes that you’ll find your rate of pass completion to be lower, however, this is offset by the larger overall contribution Fernandinho has made going forward. This is reflected in that Fernandinho has 1 assist in those 13 games. Kante is still waiting for his first.

Defensively, one would expect Kante to be miles ahead of his Manchester City rival,  but the stats again paint a very different picture. Kante certainly has the edge in average successful tackles per game (3.2 vs 2.5) and interceptions per game (2.8 vs 1.9) but lags behind Fernandinho in other key areas. For example, the Brazilian makes an average 1.7 clearances per game, considerably more than Kante’s 0.9. Further, perhaps more crucially, Fernandinho wins an average 1.8 aerial duels per game compared to Kante’s 0.5, a noted weak spot of the Frenchman.

Statistically, it seems the two aren’t so far apart, but it seems clear that in terms of tangible results, and in particular in offensive contribution, Fernandinho stands about his rival in every metric. And it’s starting to show. While Dinho hasn’t been the most popular player at City, let alone the league, the word seems to be getting out just how genuinely massive his contribution really is.

Thanks, perhaps, to the continual praise of Pep, Fernandinho seems to be finally getting the recognition he has deserved for some time. The Daily Telegraph in September listed him as the 9th best player in the Premier League, one place ahead of, you guessed it, N’Golo Kante. Last weekend on Match of the Day, Danny Murphy insisted Fernandinho has one of the best in the Premier League for numerous seasons now.

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It is, it seems, the nature of the beast that a player oft-regarded as nothing more than a holding midfielder isn’t given the credit due. Even so, Kante’s work ethic, his tireless running from start to finish of a match is well-known and rightly heralded. If it’s finally Fernandinho’s time to see some appreciation, then it’s long overdue. It’s difficult to see Fernandinho carrying Pep’s side to the league title at this point without the rest of the City squad firing on all cylinders, but, he may well carry them to victory against Chelsea on Saturday. And wouldn’t that be worthy of praise?

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