Claudio Ranieri described him as “irreplaceable”. Today, the French midfielder is likely to stand up against his former club, of which from he went to Chelsea.
An interesting feature was that Leicester did not bring for him the same type of footballer. Instead, the club issued a different route and brought Nampalys Mendy from Nice. Mendy has a large number of successful tackles and his main strength lies in the passes. But on Kante’s position plays Daniel Amartey, who is also by Ranieri not considered as a direct replacement.
Thus, in the game of Leicester, major changes have occurred. Without Kante, the game is not as wide and the players must play to each other very closely and close space quickly.
The third player who is performing the role of Kante is Danny Drinkwater who ranks among top 5 league players with successful tackles. What is most interesting, however, Kant played for Chelsea every minute and he is currently outside of top 10 in statistics, which he dominated last year.
Kante in his new club does not receive the same tasks as under Ranieri. Conte considers him to be the future of Chelsea and expects him particularly to maintain the middle of the field. 55% of his playing time he is seen in the middle of the central zone. Maintain and hold this space that is required from Conte.
This is a very different task from his perform for Leicester in last season. While playing for foxes, he had only 34% of his contact with the ball in the middle zone. It was required from him above all to chase the ball.
Kante was traditionally seen on the right or left side putting pressure on opposite wings. He could not just wait in the center. As Ranieri once remarked, the officials counted 11 players, but Kante was for two.
On his debut for Chelsea he covered 10.44 kilometers and had 29 sprints. Both statistics were the lowest in the Kante’s match, who played the full 90 minutes. His average number of sprints decreased from 64 to 48.6.
There is reasonable belief that Kante does what he should. He plays according to the instructions and Chelsea fans are happy with his game. Fans have already seen this type of player. Comparison with Claudio Makelele is still excessive, but the tasks Kante receives at Stamford Bridge are exactly the same as the Chelsea legend had.
Conte’s preference for position discipline players could spell the end of the day when Kante was running around all over the field. It may also mean that he needs to adapt his game.
The player will get an opportunity tonight when Leicester hosts Chelsea in the English Cup. We will see how much will Kante run.
source: skysports.com, foto: wikimedia.org