N’Golo Kante’s performance in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final in Madrid last week was very much a reflection of his evolution as a player over the years.
While it wasn’t the first time he put in a complete performance in the middle of the park, the Frenchman’s late, line-breaking runs past the Madrid midfield left Los Blancos reeling constantly. As much as that has become a regular feature of Kante’s skillset, it is tough to forget that perhaps, Maurizio Sarri really got that side of him going.
N’Golo Kante’s performance in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final in Madrid last week was very much a reflection of his evolution as a player over the years.
While it wasn’t the first time he put in a complete performance in the middle of the park, the Frenchman’s late, line-breaking runs past the Madrid midfield left Los Blancos reeling constantly. As much as that has become a regular feature of Kante’s skillset, it is tough to forget that perhaps, Maurizio Sarri really got that side of him going.
When the former Napoli coach replaced fellow Italian Antonio Conte at Chelsea, radical changes had to be made, mainly because Chelsea were moving to a playing style that they hadn’t played in over 15 years.
A constant argument among Chelsea fans was Sarri’s usage of Jorginho in a deeper midfield role and his decision to move Kanté in a rather advanced role in the middle of the pitch. The Frenchman was tasked with the duty of carrying the ball forward, breaking the lines and being more efficient in possession, and there was a general perception that the ex-Leicester City man wasn’t meant to be playing in the Allan role because he wasn’t a technical specimen.
Under Conte, Kanté had been used in a traditional double-pivot beside Nemanja Matic in a 3-4-3 system, playing as a pure destroyer in midfield. They became one of the best midfield duos in the European game for the 2016-17 campaign, helping the likes of Pedro, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa get attacking freedom. Conte had initially started with a 4-1-4-1 shape, with Kanté deployed as the deepest midfielder but the coach later changed to a 3-4-3 formation. Back in the days, the perception was that Conte was making the most of Kanté’s best characteristics.
What is easy to forget is that when the Frenchman arrived at Leicester City from Caen, he initially did operate further forward because of his ability to cover ground, break up play and move the ball forward. Under another Italian coach, a certain Claudio Ranieri, Kanté was used as a left midfielder or an advanced midfielder in Leicester’s title-winning campaign before the Foxes changed to a more conservative approach and Kanté was deployed a deeper midfielder.
His work rate and ability to win the ball back allowed Leicester to go from a free-flowing team to a typical, conservative Ranieri-side within weeks. And it worked perfectly, as Leicester defied the odds to become the Premier League Champions for the first time in their history. What escapes the attention of many, but not Sarri’s, is that Kanté was initially an advanced player rather than a deeper midfielder. The years of success in a different role perhaps blinded many of this fact.
The Frenchman scored in his first game under Sarri at Chelsea, when British pundits were left dumbfounded on seeing him operate almost as a right midfielder. From that position, he was allowed to break lines and move through the opposition quickly.
He hadn’t lost the skills of a pure holding midfielder, but he was still able to complete 96 carries into the final third in that season, the fourth-best tally in the league. That was one of his primary purposes of playing in that role under Sarri, who wanted to use his skillset in quite the same way as before, but just further forward in the pitch to suit his system.
Tuchel has regularly used Kanté beside Jorginho, with the Italy international playing in his trademark regista role and the Frenchman bombing forward when needed. If not Kanté, then another face familiar to Serie A, Mateo Kovacic, has been playing that role well enough. A lot of what the German has done at Chelsea has been the perfect combination of what Conte and Sarri left behind. He’s only gelled the best of the two systems together to make them cohesive and more interchangeable in some ways. Kanté’s role has been key to showing that.
While Sarri did get cruelly sacked after a season, Kanté’s evolution shows that the Tuscan always leaves behind a foundation that the next coach can take forward. Like him or not, Sarri deserves credit for that.
@Kaus_Pandey17