Chelsea: How N’golo Kante has run full circle in the Premier League
N’golo Kante began life in England as an attacking midfielder. Two Premier League titles and a World Cup later he, controversially, finds himself back in a similar role.
When you think of defensive midfielders, Chelsea’s Claude Makelele and N’golo Kante automatically dart to the forefront of your mind. However, surprisingly for Premier League fans, Makelele spent the majority of his career helping his team score goals rather than prevent them.
The Frenchman played as a winger at Nantes and as a primarily attacking central midfielder for Celta Vigo. Even at Real Madrid, 76 of his 95 starts were, according to Michael Cox’s The Mixer, next to a more a defensively minded partner such as Ivan Helguera or Esteban Cambiasso.
It wasn’t until his move to Stamford Bridge that an ageing Makelele took up the role that defined him.
N’golo Kante, on the other hand, arrived at Chelsea as a bonafide defensive shield. However, he didn’t begin life in England in such a manner.
Kante’s exponential rise
Back in the summer of 2015, Leicester City chased Nantes’ playmaker Jordan Veretout who, in an incredibly fortuitous turn of events, snubbed them in favor of Aston Villa. In the end, The Foxes were stuck with a less coveted Ligue 1 midfielder: N’golo Kante.
Leicester’s title winning side started off that season very differently than they finished it. In the first couple of months, the team conceded chances a plenty in swashbuckling back and fourths.
Claudio Ranieri deployed new boy Kante on the left-wing or behind Jamie Vardy in the Shinji Okazaki role due to the player’s similar levels of industry. But six games in, as Leicester trailed Stoke City by two goals to nil, Ranieri pulled Kante title-winning middle to tighten things up and, as they say, the rest is history.
Kante ended the campaign with the most tackles in Europe and Sir Alex Ferguson called him ‘by far the best player in the league.’ After just a year at the King Power Stadium, Chelsea snapped up the Frenchman for £32 million.
Kante’s unrelenting work rate continued under Antonio Conte and the world really started to take note of his virtues. He was crowned the PFA Player of the Year, won a second Premier League title, and has since added an FA Cup and a World Cup to his rapidly growing collection of accolades.
Kante under Sarri at Chelsea
In Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea hired a football philosopher with strong principles based around a free-flowing tactical manifesto.
The arrival of his trusted orchestrator, Jorginho, all but confirmed the world’s most heralded defensive midfielder would be pushed out of position.
Kante began the season as a box-to-box right sided central midfielder. There were little complaints early on though as he scored in the season’s opener (already equalling last year’s tally) and created four chances against Arsenal in the following fixture – more than any other player that day.
However, his early season attacking stats have since dropped to more modest levels. Tottenham identified the Frenchman as a weak link in Chelsea’s attack, allowing him possession and instead concentrating on nullifying Jorginho’s influence.
Apart from a sobering defeat it was a bruising blow to Sarri’s whole system. But the manager stood firm and boldly claimed N’golo was not technically gifted enough to operate at the base of his midfield.
Conclusion
Although most managers would be happy with Kante’s distribution and technical skills, most managers aren’t Sarri. The Italian has totally different standards regarding such areas and one only has to look at his side’s passing stats over the past couple of years for proof.
It would be naive to suggest Kante’s game isn’t suffering as a result. He is making just 1.8 tackles per game compared to last season’s 3.3; while, his average interceptions have fallen from 2.5 to 1.3. He has also failed to add to his opening day goal and has just two assists.
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One thing for sure is that Kante will keep his head down and work hard regardless of his remit on the pitch. N’golo fans will hope Sarri has a ‘two nil down at Stoke epiphany’ sooner rather than later and they can see the humble World Cup winner move back to where he was so effective.