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.
Simon Phillips at Chelsea Fancast
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.
Simon Phillips at Chelsea Fancast
No comments:
Post a Comment