Chelsea
How Sarri is killing Kante’s dominant form
Kante joined Chelsea from Leicester City after his breathtaking performances helped the Foxes to Premier League glory in the 2015-16 season.
His dominant display at the middle of the park didn’t go unnoticed by the League’s FA as he was awarded the best player for the season.
Expectedly, after his awe-inspiring outing with Leicester City, top European clubs came looking for his signature.
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Paris St-German, Manchester United and Arsenal were all rumoured to have shown interest in his signature.
After so many talks and negotiations between Chelsea and the King Power outfits, the Frenchman eventually moved to Stamford Bridge in 2016.
Kante’s presence at the midfield was obviously seen to all as he created a great understanding with Nemanja Matic, who was his midfield partner before the Serbian joined Manchester United.
In his debut season at the Bridge, the highly energetic defensive midfielder covers so much ground, make many important tackles, make awesome trademark passes and also score a handful of goals.
His presence always give Matic the confidence to move forward with the ball, knowing full well that there’s a capable man covering for him.
Kante played a great role in Chelsea’s awesome run to the Premier League glory in the 2016-17 season.
Despite Chelsea’s unimpressive results during the 2017-18 season, Kante’s performances was highly rated by the club’s faithfuls and the FA.
He was named in the team of the season as result of the untiring display he put up throughout the season. Though they failed to defend their League title, Conte’s men managed to win FA Cup.
Due to Conte’s off-field crises, the Italian manager was shown the exit door by Roman Abrahamovic and he was replaced by Maurizio Sarri before the start of this season.
As much as sarri is having a perfect start to his Chelsea career, the same cannot be said of N’Golo Kante who had to change his playing position since Sarri’s arrived at West London.
The Napoli manager brought in some new players during the summer transfer window so as to perfectly implement his playing style.
One of Napoli players during Sarri’s time with the Serie A gaints, Jorginho reunites with his compatriot at Stamford Bridge.
In a way to utilize Kante and Jorginho at the middle of the pitch, Sarri converted the Frenchman to an attacking midfielder while his compatriot occupy the defensive midfield role.
At first Kante looked comfortable in his unfamiliar role but as the season processes, the former Leicester City man is far from impressive.
Kante is known as a player who always dominates play but since Sarri took over from Conte, the Frenchman has put up below-par performances.
It is important a player add versatility to his game, however, Kante looks uncomfortable in his attacking position and Sarri need to act fast.
It is fair to admit that Sarri is probably the cause of Kante’s dwindling form and there need to be urgent changes to his tactics as regards to how and where he’s using the Frenchman.
Should the Italian manager fail to play the World Cup winner to his strength, then he should be ready to lose the player to clubs that are willing to feature him in his preferred position.
Real Madrid, PSG and Barcelona are keeping close tab on their longtime target, hoping to take advantage of Kante’s situation in the next transfer window.
