18 minutes ago, Argo said:

From a footballing sense the timing could have been a lot worse as after tomorow we have a run of games coming up where the Jorgi/Kova partnership has traditionally worked well in.

Personal perspective hopefully he gets better soon and this doesn't effect him, we saw the impact this thing had on Kai. 

Yes. Most important thing is for Kante to fully recover. He should not be rushed back.

1 hour ago, The Don Antonio said:

I thought it was irresposible for Tuchel to start an ill  Kante against Mancity. To find out it was Covid is mind boggling 

According to some, it was bad management to take him off LOL

Argh

That explained why he was so ineffective on Saturday, unless Tuchel is a doctor there's no way he'd know before the game.

This is a concern. I think his brother has a heart condition or something. If there's any genetic issue there, Covid isn't going to be ideal at all. Not to mention that long Covid could potentially mess with Kante for the rest of the season.

Hopefully nobody else tests positive before the weekend. Last thing we would need. Losing Kante is a big loss for us, no matter how anyone spins out. Regardless, hope Kante recovers well because health is more important than football. 

18 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

That explained why he was so ineffective on Saturday, unless Tuchel is a doctor there's no way he'd know before the game.

Obviously he didn't know he had covid but he was Ill and still started him.

 

3 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Obviously he didn't know he had covid but he was Ill and still started him.

Tuchel probably didn't want to make the same mistake he did against Tottenham. 

Just knew it had to be something major. Kante doesn't turn in performances like that in big games.

 

 

What's his name? Kante! N'Golo N'Golo! Kante! 

Master of the pitch today

The best midfield duo in the league, stability and causing havoc like no other!

Great performance today. Seems to have brushed off Covid as easily as he did Leicester's midfield LOL.

Is that the best goal of his career ? Struggling to think of one he's scored like that before ... :-) 

Hopefully we get him tied down to a new contract as well. Current one runs out in 2023.

We do have a over-30 policy but I assume we are prepared to forget about that one for Kante and tie him down to a long-term contract.

No word or rumours about his knee injury yet?

On 25/11/2021 at 03:31, axman2526 said:

No word or rumours about his knee injury yet?

Won't play today, but doesn't sound like a serious knee injury unlike Chilwell.

I usually don't care about balon dor but France really f up Kante chance on winning Balon dor. Losing in early knock out when you are by far the best team was just horrible 

Bit of a decision coming up in regards to Kante coming up this summer I think. Contract runs out in 2023.

We need him back in the side but counting on someone who's extremely injury-prone at this point is very risky. To win the league you need your best players available for the season and at this point you can't trust Kante to stay fit for any extended period of time. I can just imagine Liverpool having to put up with Salah or Van Dijk only being able to play 30-40% of their games. It would seriously hurt their chances.

Point being, I think we will have to consider bringing in another world-class midfielder to "take" Kante's spot so to speak. Because i'm getting tired of these injuries.

 

7 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Bit of a decision coming up in regards to Kante coming up this summer I think. Contract runs out in 2023.

We need him back in the side but counting on someone who's extremely injury-prone at this point is very risky. To win the league you need your best players available for the season and at this point you can't trust Kante to stay fit for any extended period of time. I can just imagine Liverpool having to put up with Salah or Van Dijk only being able to play 30-40% of their games. It would seriously hurt their chances.

Point being, I think we will have to consider bringing in another world-class midfielder to "take" Kante's spot so to speak. Because i'm getting tired of these injuries.

We’d have to get his replacement spot on though. Although a fully fit Kante is irreplaceable. 

The injuries continue to pile up.  All rather innocuous as well, but are really impacting team output now.  I don't know if we can work him back to fitness, or it is a case of his body starting to wear down.  We definitely need to consider a long term replacement that brings his energy.  He is irreplaceable on his best days, but sadly those are to few and far between now.

Looked back at some stats.  Last season he started in the first 17 PL games.  Following a hamstring injury, he then missed 8/21 remaining games, or 38%.  This season he has missed 7/15, or 47%, and never able to get more than 3 games in a row.

This stuff compounds when you consider injuries to other key positions, but not sure we miss anyone quite as much as Kante.

It is terribly bad luck to have all 3 Kante's injured at the same time. Leaves a massive Kante shaped hole in the middle of our midfield.

4 hours ago, Munkworth said:

We’d have to get his replacement spot on though. Although a fully fit Kante is irreplaceable. 

I'm starting to think the best option maybe from within (Gallagher).

It's clear Kante will always now be a player who misses probably on average 30% of games a season. I'll happily live with that. He is 30 and will probably play for another 4 years at this level, when fit, due to having an engine that would power an Inter City 125 for three months.

He is the the most important player at Chelsea and has been since he signed for us. Yes he needs a bit of careful management now and that's unfortunate but, by christ  its worth it. If we play City, Liverpool, Utd, Arsenal, or CL games against top teams then he is the first name on your team sheet. 

 

 

1 minute ago, Argo said:

I'm starting to think the best option maybe from within (Gallagher).

Some players are that good, that consistent, that important, it can be another decade or so before you find someone who even comes close. Drogba was one of those and I think Kante could well be another.

I can understand why you named Gallagher. He looks a talent with the right attitude. Declan Rice also really looked the part today and is getting better all the time.

1 hour ago, just said:

Some players are that good, that consistent, that important, it can be another decade or so before you find someone who even comes close. Drogba was one of those and I think Kante could well be another.

I can understand why you named Gallagher. He looks a talent with the right attitude. Declan Rice also really looked the part today and is getting better all the time.

The trick is not to fixate on replacing players like for like. We replaced Lampard with a polar opposite and it worked, Pep replaced Aguero with a false 9 system and it worked.

I would say for the short term Costa was a good Drogba replacement (not like for like but see my point above), 2 titles in 3 season's is not to be sniffed at.

3 minutes ago, Argo said:

The trick is not to fixate on replacing players like for like. We replaced Lampard with a polar opposite and it worked, Pep replaced Aguero with a false 9 system and it worked.

I would say for the short term Costa was a good Drogba replacement (not like for like but see my point above), 2 titles in 3 season's is not to be sniffed at.

Good point this, we did the same with Zola. We wont find an exact copy got Kante, we will just have to adapt as we did when we lost Zola, Lampard, Drogba etc. May take a while, but surely a midfield that includes Gilmour and Gallagher should be a good one.

8 hours ago, Argo said:

The trick is not to fixate on replacing players like for like. We replaced Lampard with a polar opposite and it worked, Pep replaced Aguero with a false 9 system and it worked.

I would say for the short term Costa was a good Drogba replacement (not like for like but see my point above), 2 titles in 3 season's is not to be sniffed at.

Take your point Argo. That's why I have always believed we can have a better central midfield if we replace Jorginho.