Former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher has revealed that World Cup-winning midfielder N’golo Kante is an average player when forced to play out of position.
It was arguably Chelsea’s worst performance of the season as the Blues succumbed to a 3-1 defeat to local London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley on Saturday. The West London outfit looked a disjointed unit as Spurs’ rampant attack was just too good for their counterparts.
Maurizio Sarri has been some under speculation for playing French midfielder N’golo Kante out of position from his preferred spot in central midfield. Since the arrival of Jorginho from Napoli, Kante has been used as a box to box midfielder and on the right-hand side which is not his usual position and despite the 27-year-old performing admirably so far, Chelsea felt the jolt after being humbled by Spurs at the weekend.
Kante only recently signed a contract extension with the Stamford Bridge outfit but in Sarri’s 4-3-3 system plays on the right-hand side of midfield having sacrificed his original berth to playmaker Jorginho. But Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher isn’t really happy with Chelsea deploying Kante in an unfamiliar role.
The 40-year-old pundit spoke on Sky Sports and revealed that Kante is very average if played out of position and Sarri will have a dilemma over whom to pick as Jorginho will continue playing in central midfield as the pivot because that’s exactly how the Italian’s gameplan is built, “Jorginho is not moving from that position. He is Sarri’s man and has built his system around him. Kante is not moving because he is about to sign a massive contract.
“Jorginho has been excellent this season — teams have to change their system and their style at times to counteract him, which shows how good a player he is. If he gets people around him, like Dele Alli or Gylfi Sigurdsson last week, that means there should be space for other players.
“Against Spurs, space was in the wide areas so we wanted to see more from Hazard, Willian and maybe the full-backs. Kante is a very average player in the position he is playing now — I just see a normal midfield player. When he plays in his natural position I see a world-class player.”
Sarri has a big problem on his hands as he will have to sort out the midfield players and maybe have to play Kante and Jorginho as a midfield two. But for now, Sarri can still opt on different options against smaller teams and continue playing Kante higher up the pitch.
