N'golo Kante - We are not worthy!

[Guest Sindre]

8 hours ago, loz said:

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

I suppose the fear is that the injuries seems to be getting worse and worse. Which makes sense considering as he's almost 31 now and he's struggled for a while.

He's our top earner (deservedly so) as well and will the club abandon it's over 30 policy? In general we only give one year contracts to players past 30.

Kante was almost never injured before Sarri played him through injury with pain injections btw. Then Lampard unfortunately had no idea how to take care of him either. Rushed him back every single time and he had 8 different injuries in 19/20. 

Huge shame as a more sensible manager, like Tuchel would probably have realized he needed adequate time to get completely fit and Kante would likely still have fully fit most of the time. Right now he's on a slippery slope into more and more injuries.

 

[Frankie8Lampard]

His performance today really showed what we have been lacking in the last few months. A lot people like to say injuries are an excuse but in Kante's case it is a good excuse. He's our world class player and us losing Kante is the equivalent to City losing De Bruyne or Liverpool losing Salah. Honestly feel that if we had him over the last month we still would have been top of the league. 

[Guest Sindre]

Might be injured again after that.

Best player on the pitch but this isn't really sustainable if he's out again now.

 

 

[Zeta]

Thought we'd probably only see him for a few games. He's injured all the time now.

[axman2526]

2 hours ago, Sindre said:

Might be injured again after that.

Best player on the pitch but this isn't really sustainable if he's out again now.

 

 

He was notnforced in to playing him. He chose to play him. He was great but if he has got injured then was on us for using him when Saul, Ross and Sarr were all fit and on the bench.

Just cause we got screwed over does not mean we need to be silly.

[Guest Sindre]

Injured again now.

So frustrating this. Great to have him back today (played well in the second half especially) but you simply cannot rely on him staying fit anymore. If you go into a season with four midfielders for two spots you'd almost need a fifth one up your sleeve to cover for Kante's injuries at this point.

[axman2526]

3 hours ago, Sindre said:

Injured again now.

So frustrating this. Great to have him back today (played well in the second half especially) but you simply cannot rely on him staying fit anymore. If you go into a season with four midfielders for two spots you'd almost need a fifth one up your sleeve to cover for Kante's injuries at this point.

Clearly Pulisicitis has spread to Kante.

[Gol15]

Sad that he's back on the injury list. The good news is that Kovacic is back though.

[axman2526]

1 minute ago, Gol15 said:

Sad that he's back on the injury list. The good news is that Kovacic is back though.

And we have Saul as well don't forget...

[Gol15]

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

And we have Saul as well don't forget...

He had a decent game the last time he played, he could still be a decent backup for 45minutes maybe...

 

[Scott Harris]

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Sad that he's back on the injury list. The good news is that Kovacic is back though.

We get a fresh new injury every game, so don't be surprised if he picks up another injury. Our injury crisis is crazy, I don't think I have ever seen anything like this before. I have seen a team pick up injuries that effect one or two games, but nothing like this. 

[Whiskyjack]

21 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We get a fresh new injury every game, so don't be surprised if he picks up another injury. Our injury crisis is crazy, I don't think I have ever seen anything like this before. I have seen a team pick up injuries that effect one or two games, but nothing like this. 

Agreed.  About as bad for us now as Liverpool last season when all their central defenders were crocked then Fabinho and Henderson had to play in defence and got crocked also.

Cost them a shot at the league, probably gonna cost us one this year too.

[just]

The real issue is, even playing injured or half-fit, Kante is more often than not the best player on the pitch. His performance level is that good.

It's a shame but also an undeniable fact that our two best players by far, Kante and Silva, are also our two most injury prone. 

[Scott Harris]

6 hours ago, just said:

The real issue is, even playing injured or half-fit, Kante is more often than not the best player on the pitch. His performance level is that good.

It's a shame but also an undeniable fact that our two best players by far, Kante and Silva, are also our two most injury prone. 

It's his tempo and pressing that we miss the most, you see it every time he is on the pitch. I don't expect anybody else in the team to be as good as Kante is at it, but they all need to improve in that area again. The injuries the squad have sucks, but one thing I think that has hurt us more is how much our tempo and intensity has dropped. We are playing far too slow, you can't do that in the Premier League. 

[terraloon]

Although it pains me to have to admit it but SAF was a football manager genius. His ability to re build a squad had no equal and the keystone to that was said by some to be his not allowing any player to question his authority add to that he never hesitated when it came to selling players at the height of their power. Players like Beckenham and Stam were sold for good money and replaced.

At some point in time Kante has to be replaced. He isn’t the player he was 2 years ago and in another two years he won’t be the player he is today. 
 

It’s going to be a choker when he leaves but we have to look to the future . I thought he would be sold at the end of last season but I am even more convinced that the club are now looking seriously at moving him on.

 

Now no doubt I am going to get shouted at by some but the name  Aurelian Tchouameni is being mentioned as a replacement and from everything I read there may well something in it

[loz]

28 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Although it pains me to have to admit it but SAF was a football manager genius. His ability to re build a squad had no equal and the keystone to that was said by some to be his not allowing any player to question his authority add to that he never hesitated when it came to selling players at the height of their power. Players like Beckenham and Stam were sold for good money and replaced.

At some point in time Kante has to be replaced. He isn’t the player he was 2 years ago and in another two years he won’t be the player he is today. 
 

It’s going to be a choker when he leaves but we have to look to the future . I thought he would be sold at the end of last season but I am even more convinced that the club are now looking seriously at moving him on.

 

Now no doubt I am going to get shouted at by some but the name  Aurelian Tchouameni is being mentioned as a replacement and from everything I read there may well something in it

Couldn't disagree more. I'd happily see him play out his career with us even if that means playing him on 50% of games and cherry picking them. 

Jorginho, Kovavic and even Mount are replaceable without major detriment. There is nobody out there who we could bring in to give us what Kante does.

[Argo]

1 minute ago, loz said:

Couldn't disagree more. I'd happily see him play out his career with us even if that means playing him on 50% of games and cherry picking them. 

Jorginho, Kovavic and even Mount are replaceable without major detriment. There is nobody out there who we could bring in to give us what Kante does.

The trick is not to obsess with replacing a player like for like.

We replaced Lampard with a polar opposite in Cesc and it worked, City 'replacing' Aguero with a false 9 system has also payed off handsomely.

[terraloon]

14 minutes ago, loz said:

Couldn't disagree more. I'd happily see him play out his career with us even if that means playing him on 50% of games and cherry picking them. 

Jorginho, Kovavic and even Mount are replaceable without major detriment. There is nobody out there who we could bring in to give us what Kante does.

Sorry but no manager with ambition at a club with ambition would let sentiment be a fact when picking his squad or indeed an 11. In his prime no one got close to what Kante offered but he isn’t close to his prime if for no other reasons his injury record 

Add to that FFP will need to be a consideration and there will be all sort of data that will be taken into account.

Every player reaches a point in time where they face the tipping point be it  age, injuries or even the emergence of a better player but .

I dont doubt that the same point  in the very near future the same debate will emerge re Jorginho and Kova but it’s a while before the  same questions will be asked about Mount who isn’t even  close to his premium years.

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by terraloon

[loz]

55 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Sorry but no manager with ambition at a club with ambition would let sentiment be a fact when picking his squad or indeed an 11. In his prime no one got close to what Kante offered but he isn’t close to his prime if for no other reasons his injury record 

Add to that FFP will need to be a consideration and there will be all sort of data that will be taken into account.

Every player reaches a point in time where they face the tipping point be it  age, injuries or even the emergence of a better player but .

I dont doubt that the same point  in the very near future the same debate will emerge re Jorginho and Kova but it’s a while before the  same questions will be asked about Mount who isn’t even  close to his premium years.

 

It has f**k all to do with sentiment. It's purely to do with the fact Kante is head and shoulders above every other midfielder we have. They aren't in his league and if we genuinely think we can get 50%-70% of games out of who is our best player then it would be ridiculous to let him go. It's not as if his engine is running out.

[Gol15]

I doubt that the club will try to squeeze out some cash and sell Kante in the summer when he has 1 year left on his contract.

He's not going to be seen as a Hazard type, that was at the top before he left... Because first of all he will be older and at the last year of his peak. Second it's not like he was lucky to avoid injuries like Hazard, Kante won't be seen as a player that doesn't get injured and that affects a potential big fee before his contract expires, it would be impossible to get a huge deal like with Hazard.

It somehow makes more sense to me that the club will either offer him a new contract or let him become a free agent. Unless for example PSG doesn't win the CL this season and wants Kante and then Marina sees an opportunity there...

Now that I mentioned Hazard, I still find it amazing how he managed to avoid getting injured, he's the player that probably took the most hits when he had the ball, Pulisic got the same treatment but he's not as strong as Hazard, he goes down and gets injured casually and I've seen games where a defender fouled him hard once when he tried to dribble and that was enough for Pulisic to stop trying that move for the rest of the game, you couldn't shut down Hazard like that at all. 7 seasons and he missed out less than 20 games due to injury.

With all that said, the scouting team needs to hit gold again, the reality of losing a few world class players is there so it would be great to sign an upcoming world class talent and on paper Tchouameni looks like he would fit really well in the PL and in our club as well. In the near future we could lose pretty much all influential players and leaders, in no particular order Kante, T.Silva, Jorginho, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, so there will be a lot of tough choices to make and hopefully Tuchel is going to be able to survive that and build a new backbone of the team.

[Deino]

5 hours ago, terraloon said:

Although it pains me to have to admit it but SAF was a football manager genius. His ability to re build a squad had no equal and the keystone to that was said by some to be his not allowing any player to question his authority add to that he never hesitated when it came to selling players at the height of their power. Players like Beckenham and Stam were sold for good money and replaced.

At some point in time Kante has to be replaced. He isn’t the player he was 2 years ago and in another two years he won’t be the player he is today. 
 

It’s going to be a choker when he leaves but we have to look to the future . I thought he would be sold at the end of last season but I am even more convinced that the club are now looking seriously at moving him on.

 

Now no doubt I am going to get shouted at by some but the name  Aurelian Tchouameni is being mentioned as a replacement and from everything I read there may well something in it

I disagree with this, Kante's contract should be renewed until he decides to hang his boots which to me seems to be in a couple of years maybe 5yrs max. 

Kante offers a lot of attributes for us in the middle every time he plays

[terraloon]

5 hours ago, Deino said:

I disagree with this, Kante's contract should be renewed until he decides to hang his boots which to me seems to be in a couple of years maybe 5yrs max. 

Kante offers a lot of attributes for us in the middle every time he plays

There’s a couple of real unknowns in the equation.

For instance the medical teams will know far more about the state of his body . There’s a reason for the frequency and type of injuries he is now suffering and in part the suggestion is that the intensity he delivers has taken its toll. He will know the sort of level  he can expect from himself and indeed how he could get an extra year or two playing in a less challenging league

Another revolves around his contract and of course the length and wage that will be on offer. Would he really be prepared to take a deal that sees his pay lower than the level it currently is ? 

Kate will be 31 in March and 32 when his contract runs it course. He isn’t going to get a deal next season that will see him getting better wages than he is on currently. Harsh but that’s the reality. He certainly won’t be getting a 3-4 or 5 year deal. 
 

Time after time once players get to 32( it used to be 30) we see their form, their hunger their value decline rapidly.

I wish that Kante was still in  his 20s but he isn’t. We have to be planning for his departure. It would be naive to be planning any sort of rebuild around players in their 30s.Of course he offers attributes that others currently don’t offer, that is beyond doubt but , and this sort of reinforces my point to date in season 21/22 in all games and yes that’s 6 CL games, 19PL games, 3 CC games, and 1 super cup game which went into 30 minutes of extra time he has completed 90 minutes on just three occasions and of the  2100 minutes we have played he has featured in just 875 minutes 

In terms of injuries up  to 2018/19 he rarely missed a minute but there is a trend and that trend continues and that won’t have been missed by the back room stafF

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ngolo-kante/leistungsdaten/spieler/225083/plus/0?saison=2018

 

Kante’s  game is all about that 100% energy age catches up with every player  particularly midfielders .Silva plays on because of the position he plays as does Ronaldo both those players play a different way to Kante.

As for there not being any suitable replacement well that’s something that is going to have to be dealt with be it in a year, two or three but it’s far easier to attract players  or indeed keep players when they can see a pathway to becoming a regular.

 

 

[charierre]

It’s that time of year again. Let’s sell Kante…our one true world class player!  He’s had a repeat of a knee injury, the type of injury suffered by players both young and old(is 30 old?). If we were daft enough to let him go, there would be a queue of top clubs after his services. Madness

[just]

How about if we sell one of our midfield Kantes and keep the other two?

[Munkunku]

2 minutes ago, just said:

How about if we sell one of our midfield Kantes and keep the other two?

What and leave the other four in limbo?