Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has described midfielder N’Golo Kante as “one of the best players in the world”, while reiterating the importance of the Frenchman and has how he has been a huge miss for the Blues during an injury-raven 2019-20 season.
World Cup winner N’golo Kante has established himself as one of the most consistent performers in the Premier League over the last five years, with Leicester City and now Chelsea. The combative midfielder has thoroughly impressed with his relentless energy levels in the centre of the park winning the Premier League on two occasions.
In a spell of five years, Kante has transformed into a valuable asset for both club and country and the 29-year-old is regarded as one of the best midfielders in the word by Chelsea boss Frank Lampard.
Over the past four seasons, Kante has made 34 appearances in each campaign but has struggled with his fitness this season under the Englishman’s first season in charge of the club.
With the coronavirus crisis halting football since early March, Kante has managed to get back to full fitness with extra time to recover and Lampard has waxed lyrical about the defensive midfielder.
Often described as a ‘rash’ the 41-year-old Lampard spoke to BT Sport to explain what a massive miss Kante was due to the injury-ravaged campaign that allowed him to make only a handful of appearances for the Blues this season. He said, “We had four or five of those [injured players] when we finished playing recently. N’Golo Kante is obviously a great example because he’s played four or five incredible seasons in terms of his individual success and he’s been used quite rightly by his managers a lot, this season he’s played only about 40% of our games and even then it’s been difficult for him and I’ve really felt for him on an individual level. He’s been a huge miss for us.”
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Despite being loaded with a number of midfielders in his squad, Lampard explained that he is eager to work with Kante, labelling the Frenchman as one of the best in the world, “We obviously need N’Golo Kante back in our team, one of the best players in the world. I knew that before I became manager of Chelsea and know that now from working with him. I haven’t been able to have him much this year and going forward we, of course, want him fit and raring to go.”
