It is time for Chelsea to start thinking on N’Golo Kante’s future

N’Golo Kante’s recent injury issues require a tough look at his Chelsea future. Is his production when he plays good enough to wait for?

N’Golo Kante’s game is Westbrookian. Like the basketball player Russell Westbrook, he has spent his entire career pursuing myopic goals. He cares about what is in front of him, never taking the time to see the forest through the trees. Never allowing his nearsighted single-mindedness to have a periphery. Never thinking long term.

Simply put, like Westbrook, Kante plays the game with reckless abandon. He is hyper aggressive, mobile, fearless, and combative at all times in all facets of the game. He never takes plays off, let alone games off (until recently). There is no off switch and because of that, there really is no room for nuance or longevity.

This style of play has a short shelf life. Injuries creep in around age 27 (even earlier for Westbrook circa April 24, 2013), and then compound as the years keep coming. This is now Kante’s third injury of the season, courtesy of the French Federation for continuously calling up a player that is not 100 percent healthy. Didier Deschamps, is truly a profound representation of a “former Chelsea man” and not an “always Chelsea man.”

When Kante has played, he has been inconsistent. Sure, he was sublime against Liverpool one time, but that was really his only 8.5-ish game. The rest of the time he seems either lost in possession, lost in positioning, or simply lost. Many will disagree. Chelsea fans do what every sports fan does. They watch the ball and the play; they do not look beyond the ball and seek to understand beyond the immediate play.

Coaches do not watch they ball, they look around the ball. They look at how the lines are moving and the issues involved. The ball is immaterial; it is the rest of the game that is particularly juicy. Off the ball is where the good stuff is and it is there that the view of Kante dims.

Kante is an average passer and used to be below average. Over Kante’s Premier League career, he averages 53 passes per game. By comparison, Jorginho averages 82. When Kante does pass, they are short passes but despite that his passing percentage is only 79 percent. As a world class midfielder, that is not good enough. Only recently has he become emboldened enough to deliver a low driven ball. He is only competent at dribbling and pushing the tempo when he has time and space (this is why Manchester City always smothers him and he coughs it up every time).

He is a complete and utter liability on any set piece. Now, it is not his fault for being short, but the facts are the facts; Andy Carroll and company are begging to be marked by him. He sometimes fouls in horrendously dangerous situations at inopportune times in and around the 18. Instead of staying in front of his man, or, in matters of chasing down a player, simply trying to slow that player down, he can be guilty of committing frivolous fouls when the game is winding down. He cannot blame inexperience for this indiscretions. That is just him being too hasty.

Altogether, world class he is not. He is just a great ball winner; blue tinted glasses not required. Once one stops irrationally and speciously cheering for the short guy that is always smiling, his deficiencies begin to appear. Yes, this can come across as too harsh and maybe he is being graded on a particular curve. Chelsea fans, as great as they are, have exaggerated his contributions and given him a pass on his, well, passing because he is such a likable player. Trying to remain objective as a fan is tough, but sometimes taking a birds eye view is the right way to evaluate performances.

The efficacy of his play has become overblown to the point of mythic. With his rapidly approaching and inevitable decline and his inability to stay on the pitch, the club needs to think about finding an adequate replacement. The club passed on Leandro Paredes and dragged their feet on Nicolo Barella. And they were not even in the running for Rodri.

The club cannot allow another Declan Rice slip through the proverbial finger tips. Bleacher Report has stated that Man United is willing to splash £100 million at Rice in January. Not great, Bob. It is time to start thinking about the next five years and throughout the next five years, Kante will not be as integral as many want him to be. That is the reality of the situation and it is time to find the solution. Perhaps PSG would be willing to part with Paredes and £75 million in a player swap plus cash scenario. Paris may just be that desperate enough to make another splash.