Welcome N’Golo Kante

[Nevamind 357]

15 hours ago, benjsross said:

It's hard to look as influential when we don't let the other team have the ball.

Yeah that seems logical.

[Scott Harris 24,642]

17 hours ago, Theafonis said:

I'm kind of annoyed he played the full match when we play West Ham away in a few days, probably should have taken him off at 60min, he deserves some rest. 

Is Drinkwater even in the club's plans? Not even in the Europa League squad. 

To be fair, it is Kante, this bloke never get's tired.

[Scott Harris 24,642]

Kante goes from playing in the French 1st division where nobody knew him, to winning the Premier League twice in a row, then he won the F.A cup, then he won the World Cup, now he has just got into the FIFPro World XI. What a find this guy is.

[Kentonio 1,129]

Interesting article explaining why Sarri isn't expecting Kante to suddenly start scoring goals for fun.

https://theprideoflondon.com/2018/09/25/chelsea-napoli-midfielders-jorginho-ngolo-kante/

[Skinnedy 933]

Chris Kamara asks Robert Huth "How do you win the Premier League with a back 4 of Simpson Morgan Huth & Fuchs" 

He has a one word Answer - Kante

 

[Dixon 112]

On 25/09/2018 at 08:46, Kentonio said:

Interesting article explaining why Sarri isn't expecting Kante to suddenly start scoring goals for fun.

https://theprideoflondon.com/2018/09/25/chelsea-napoli-midfielders-jorginho-ngolo-kante/

Kante has scored a goal a season over here. He will never become a goal scorer as its just not natural to him! Then we have Kavocic, who's scored one league goal in three and half years. Willian's lack of end product, and them our non goal scoring strikers. Its amazing to see us where we are when we have such significant problems in the final third of the pitch. Its incredible to think that Kante's gone from being our most important player (with Hazard) to someone who might be one of those we need to upgrade on for next season.

 

[Kentonio 1,129]

12 hours ago, Dixon said:

ts incredible to think that Kante's gone from being our most important player (with Hazard) to someone who might be one of those we need to upgrade on for next season.

I think there’s zero chance of that happening.

[Dixon 112]

1 hour ago, Kentonio said:

I think there’s zero chance of that happening.

So you think he'll be given a place based on performances from previous seasons and not how he's playing now? If we want to win titles in this era we desperately need more firepower! Sadly, Kante is not one of those who will help with that. It's like asking Messi to become a holding midfielder.

[Ilya 193]

He's done so much for us and is such nice guy, that it feels horrible to say so, but with the current system he is not worth to us as much as he would to another club in need of a good old-school protector for defence. Let's see how this season goes, but if Sarri is here to stay - may be some market activity that results in Kante going and us getting a genuine world class goal-scoring midfielder, wouldn't be such a bad thing for all involved. Kante for Pogba?  :))

[big blue 5,398]

25 minutes ago, Dixon said:

So you think he'll be given a place based on performances from previous seasons and not how he's playing now? If we want to win titles in this era we desperately need more firepower! Sadly, Kante is not one of those who will help with that. It's like asking Messi to become a holding midfielder.

It is nothing like asking messi to become a holding midfielder. 

I thought kante played well against Liverpool, his position isn't vastly different to what it was last season, he makes more forward runs now off the ball, but he has always been a box to box midfielder, rather than a holding midfielder. I don't sarri is expecting him to become a massive attacking force, he's in the team for his ability to press, tackle, and recover, if he chips in with a few goals or assist then great, but he is playing the Allen role in the team.

We now we keep the ball better, there is less opportunities for kante win it back, which is by far the best part of his game, so in games when we have 70% possession, he isn't going to shine as much. 

If we are chasing a goal then, I think it's natural that more defensive players would come off for attack minded players, however kante adds balance so he is still one of the 1st names on the team sheet for me.

I know there seems to be this consensus that the midfield lack goals, which I can understand to a certain extent, however we should be looking at our attackers for goals first and foremost. If we had a 30 goal a season striker, would it really be that much of an issue that the midfield don't score enough? 

I think we should be looking strengthen the striker and right wing positions, and see if we can get a front 3 that produces regularly. 

[Ilya 193]

The problem is - we seem to have two players doing a decent Allen and no one doing a Hamsik...

(And I appreciate that I am being fairly frivolous with this comparison just because it's amusing, but the point that we don't have a Hamsik-equivalent still stands.)

[ducavis 918]

9 minutes ago, big blue said:

It is nothing like asking messi to become a holding midfielder. 

I thought kante played well against Liverpool, his position isn't vastly different to what it was last season, he makes more forward runs now off the ball, but he has always been a box to box midfielder, rather than a holding midfielder. I don't sarri is expecting him to become a massive attacking force, he's in the team for his ability to press, tackle, and recover, if he chips in with a few goals or assist then great, but he is playing the Allen role in the team.

We now we keep the ball better, there is less opportunities for kante win it back, which is by far the best part of his game, so in games when we have 70% possession, he isn't going to shine as much. 

If we are chasing a goal then, I think it's natural that more defensive players would come off for attack minded players, however kante adds balance so he is still one of the 1st names on the team sheet for me.

I know there seems to be this consensus that the midfield lack goals, which I can understand to a certain extent, however we should be looking at our attackers for goals first and foremost. If we had a 30 goal a season striker, would it really be that much of an issue that the midfield don't score enough? 

I think we should be looking strengthen the striker and right wing positions, and see if we can get a front 3 that produces regularly. 

If our style of play is not suited to his strength, would he then still be a guaranteed starter? In games were we have 70% possession which is about every other team outside the top 7, will he actually be necessary? 

I am not saying sell him as it will be crazy, but it might be worthwhile buying someone more dynamic. Someone like Aourar/Ndombele initially as an understudy, and then ease them slowly into starting these games where we have more possession. Kante will still be coming on regularly for the odd 20/30mins, and starting the big games where we need to win the ball back high up the pitch.

[guddy69 272]

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

He's done so much for us and is such nice guy, that it feels horrible to say so, but with the current system he is not worth to us as much as he would to another club in need of a good old-school protector for defence. Let's see how this season goes, but if Sarri is here to stay - may be some market activity that results in Kante going and us getting a genuine world class goal-scoring midfielder, wouldn't be such a bad thing for all involved. Kante for Pogba?  :))

That's a good idea, bring Pogba in and ruin everything we have worked on becoming this season, mavelous !

Edited October 1, 2018 by guddy69

[Scott Harris 24,642]

Are people seriously thinking we should sell Kante? Did I just imagine the performance he put in against Liverpool where he was one of our best players? I would give up every single on of those midfielders before giving up Kante. I know this team needs more goals, but that doesn't mean we need to even think about selling Kante for them.

Having a goalscoring midfield is nice, but it's not essential. Some of the best teams in recent times have got by without too many goals coming from midfield. It's the forwards that need to be getting us the goals, and if we had a consistent RW and 20+ goals a season striker, we wouldn't even be thinking about where the goals are going to come from in midfield.

[Kentonio 1,129]

Exactly. Kante is the engine of our team, and we’d be a much sh*tter side without him.

[Zeta 12,782]

It's just going to take a while for him to become used to playing higher up the field, knowing when to press, etc...

[big blue 5,398]

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

If our style of play is not suited to his strength, would he then still be a guaranteed starter? In games were we have 70% possession which is about every other team outside the top 7, will he actually be necessary? 

I am not saying sell him as it will be crazy, but it might be worthwhile buying someone more dynamic. Someone like Aourar/Ndombele initially as an understudy, and then ease them slowly into starting these games where we have more possession. Kante will still be coming on regularly for the odd 20/30mins, and starting the big games where we need to win the ball back high up the pitch.

It depends how the game plays out, personally I would always start him, because his pressing ability contributes to us having more possession, his energy sets the tone, and if we make the break through within the first 60 mins, then having kante to help keep things tight defensively is vital. 

So far this season there has only been West ham that have managed to keep us out, in spite of the fact our strikers aren't scoring.

[Brutos 3,008]

LOL LOL am so glad you guys aren't actually incharge of the club's transfer [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

[Dixon 112]

3 hours ago, big blue said:

It is nothing like asking messi to become a holding midfielder. 

I thought kante played well against Liverpool, his position isn't vastly different to what it was last season, he makes more forward runs now off the ball, but he has always been a box to box midfielder, rather than a holding midfielder. I don't sarri is expecting him to become a massive attacking force, he's in the team for his ability to press, tackle, and recover, if he chips in with a few goals or assist then great, but he is playing the Allen role in the team.

We now we keep the ball better, there is less opportunities for kante win it back, which is by far the best part of his game, so in games when we have 70% possession, he isn't going to shine as much. 

If we are chasing a goal then, I think it's natural that more defensive players would come off for attack minded players, however kante adds balance so he is still one of the 1st names on the team sheet for me.

I know there seems to be this consensus that the midfield lack goals, which I can understand to a certain extent, however we should be looking at our attackers for goals first and foremost. If we had a 30 goal a season striker, would it really be that much of an issue that the midfield don't score enough? 

I think we should be looking strengthen the striker and right wing positions, and see if we can get a front 3 that produces regularly. 

Re. If we had a 30 goal striker would our lack of goals from midfield be an issue! Yes it would!

Say we had that 30 goal striker and Hazard scores 20-25. We'd still need a lot more goals from the rest of the team and we won't get them with the main three midfielders we are using now. Kante has been great for and he is a lovely guy but that was true about Mata and he left.

[big blue 5,398]

16 minutes ago, Dixon said:

Re. If we had a 30 goal striker would our lack of goals from midfield be an issue! Yes it would!

Say we had that 30 goal striker and Hazard scores 20-25. We'd still need a lot more goals from the rest of the team and we won't get them with the main three midfielders we are using now. Kante has been great for and he is a lovely guy but that was true about Mata and he left.

So theoretically 20 goals from hazard, 25 goals, from a new striker, Willian and Pedro get 15 between them, alonso with 5, centre backs with another 5 between them, and we get a further 15 from back up striker and squad players. 

That's a conservative 80 goals, without a single goal from the midfield 3. 

That's proven to be enough goals to win 3 out of the last 4 league titles. 

There is a decent amount of goals already in this squad, and I maintain that a top striker and a new right winger would add enough goals, without having to sacrifice one of the best players in the world. 

A midfielder scoring more than 5 goals a season isn't a requirement. It would be nice, but it certainly isn't a nescessity to win the title, as long as your attackers are scoring goals. 

[Brutos 3,008]

I actually can't believe people want to sell Kante. I mean I have read something's on this forumsl that makes me shake my head and this is in the top 3 of those things

[DaRick 920]

All of this talk about selling Kante because he doesn't score enough goals is the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish. 

You would lose one of the world's premier ball-winning midfielders in doing so. His replacement might score a few more goals, but we would be significantly more vulnerable defensively by virtue of Kante's absence and so those few goals would almost certainly be cancelled out anyway. How many midfielders can intercept and tackle like Kante can over as many matches? I can't think of any. 

If we want more goals, we really need a more prolific RW/CF combination to support an ageing Pedro and supplant an ineffective Morata. 

[atomis 673]

In football terms, getting rid of Kante, is like saying no to a quality BJ.......yeah im exaggerating but you get the point. You dont just say bench or sell Kante.

[Skinnedy 933]

41 minutes ago, atomis said:

In football terms, getting rid of Kante, is like saying no to a quality BJ

I'd rather turn down the latter than the former....

[atomis 673]

11 minutes ago, Skinnedy said:

I'd rather turn down the latter than the former....

Well......not many Kante's out there are there.......he walks into any team instantly.