Chelsea: Call it what you like, N’Golo Kante plays the N’Golo Kante role

Regardless of formation and terminology, Frank Lampard will ensure his Chelsea sides get the full benefit of having N’Golo Kante on the pitch.

The Frank Lampard Effect, with some help from Frank Lampard himself, has swept most of the scraps of Sarritology from the conversations around Chelsea FC. Most Chelsea fans have been more than happy to move on and speak of better things, and every single statement from Lampard has been alive with competence and professionalism. Comparisons between Lampard and Sarri are sparse, and contrasts all favour one direction.

One lingering discussion, though, is how to label N’Golo Kante’s past and upcoming roles.

While Kante is among the top few midfielders in the world for his defensive abilities, you can still get caught in a mind-numbing tail-chase with some fans if you refer to Kante as “defensive midfielder.” Employing a level of pedantry and superficial knowledge usually reserved for Neil Degrasse Tyson specials, the priestly order of Welaxhually point out that Kante played in a double pivot for Leicester City, Chelsea under Antonio Conte and France, and, having read the Buzzfeed version of Inverting the Pyramid, that means he was not a defensive midfielder.

This “thought” process extends into questions of how Frank Lampard will use N’Golo Kante.

Lampard has enough attacking midfielders to have no reason to use Kante in a box-to-box or quasi-attacking role.

Kante did well enough as the box-to-box midfielder last season, but it deprived Chelsea of necessary coverage at the base of midfield. The centrebacks needed more than Jorginho and Jorginho needed Kante almost as much as the defenders did.

Kante was still Chelsea’s best defensive midfielder (not to be confused with “defensive midfielder,” remember) despite playing the two-way role because he did what he normally would do in a deep position in a more advanced position. His pressure, tackles, dispossession and early releases of the ball (either through passes or a quick touch to dribble out, usually forward) simply occurred up the pitch. His position made it easier for the opponent to play around Kante, but he remained the breakwater for anything in his domain.

Wherever N’Golo Kante plays, he is always going to be N’Golo Kante. He can add more elements to his game, as he did last year on offence, but they never come at the expense of his defining abilities – unless he is too far out of position to perform them for the team’s maximum benefit.

Maurizio Sarri did not deny Chelsea the full benefit of N’Golo Kante because he demanded Kante join the attack. That was still Kante doing Kante things up there. Sarri compromised what Kante brought to the team by taking him out of the areas of the pitch where what Kante does can have the most effect.

Frank Lampard, like most coaches who look up from their textbook to play football in the real world, understands the limitations of role-based formations. The measure of a player is not how closely he hews to some generic description, but of what he brings to a team. Likewise, the measure of a coach is not how closely he can assemble and drill a team to enact what is in his book, but how he can get the best results from his team by getting the most out of each individual.

Whatever formation Lampard plays, whether N’Golo Kante is a defensive midfielder, central midfielder, central defensive midfielder, or the dude on the right side of a double pivot, he will be doing the things that have brought his teams two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a Europa League title and the World Cup.

Lampard’s challenge is not deciding which role to shoehorn Kante into, but figuring out where to deploy Kante among 10 other Blues to defeat opponents 1-3 times per week.

Any Leicester, Chelsea or France fan can describe to you those traits and those moments that make N’Golo Kante such a special player. Few will rely on a textbook to slap a label on it, except perhaps to follow it up with “but it’s more than that, because…” Any talk of his limitations will only be in the context of what he has not done yet, not what he cannot do (remember those times last season when he was the only Chelsea player in the opposition box as an aerial cross came in?).

Wherever N’Golo Kante plays, he plays the N’Golo Kante role. His manager simply needs to position that role in the context of the team. Then tweeters and bloggers even more tedious than those here at The Pride of London can give you a technical-sounding name for it.