ChelseaYank

100% agree with this. To add, runs off the ball aren't rewarded (enough) since the pass is either left, right or backwards.

100% agree with this. To add, runs off the ball aren't rewarded (enough) since the pass is either left, right or backwards.

Kante's role was to be the link to our attack, the one that is tasked with keeping up the momentum of our build up play, but he killed momentum with his passing and indicisiveness. We can't keep saying that isn't Kante's role when what we are seeing is the total opposite. His role of being the player that breaks up counter attacks and quickly moves the ball on to attacking players is long gone, we haven't had him playing that way for the majority of these past 3 seasons now.
Teams are giving Kante space and marking others out of the game because they believe that Kante can't hurt them going forward. He's not going to be playing through balls to the strikers or wingers, he's not going to play many passes through the lines. He's going to move further forward into space and play a safe pass to the side, which is often either played too far in front or too far ahead of the player he is aiming at. It's possible that the movement was weak when Kante was on the ball because they didn't expect or believe he was going to play a through ball to them, he was looking for the short simple pass so that is what the attackers were expecting. 
I'm not blaming Kante for this, he's being asked to play a game that doesn't suit his skillset. It was Tuchel's decison to play him ahead of Kovacic, so really, it's Tuchel who I think should take most of the blame today. 

I'm partial to Pulisic, still it looks like a lot of his runs go unnoticed, or noticed...yet the ball isn't sent his way. It's probably because I am watching him most of the time. I did see Timo runs that also went unnoticed.  Passing "forward" seems like a hard thing for  our players to do.   

Sorry, what are you trying to imply here. Before making these types of unsubstantiated rumours about people do you have a single shred of evidence to support this narrative that you seem to want to pursue?

Been awhile - December 5th, I believe. He definitely needs to go after the ball more (defensively) - that part of his games irks me. 

Been awhile - December 5th, I believe. He definitely needs to go after the ball more (defensively) - that part of his games irks me.