Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante has had a rough year thanks to injuries. What questions should be asked ahead of the coming season?
N’Golo Kante was rushed back from injury to play in last season’s Europa League final. He was reinjured and spent the first half of the season just trying to recover from that. When he did return, it was again rushed and he missed more time. With his injury woes and age beginning to creep in, what questions do Chelsea need to ask of Kante ahead of the new season?
1. Can he put his injury issues behind him?
Kante played in just 28 games of the 2019/2020 season, missing another 25 through injury or concerns about injury. That is a phenomenal regression from his playing time in every other Premier League season and it comes down to, mostly, just rushing him back before he was ready.
Eventually, Frank Lampard took a more cautious approach to Kante’s fitness but whether that remains is an open ended question. The Blues have no player quite like Kante and Lampard has opted to switch to a 3-4-3 rather than run with a 4-3-3 more often than not when the Frenchman has been out.
Chelsea needs to find a deputy to Kante regardless (which could be part of Declan Rice rumors), but the real question needs to be asked about whether or not the Blues can rely on Kante as an option next season. Playing almost 30 games a season is not in of itself a low number, but it is when there is no real alternative.
The Blues will need to continue to be careful with Kante’s fitness next season. Even still, they should be cautious after his woes this season. Chelsea still needs the Frenchman and ideally he would be available as often as possible.
2. Will Frank Lampard deploy him as a holding midfielder more often?
With a near fully fit squad after the restart, Lampard made a telling decision to play Kante as the deepest midfielder flanked by two much more attacking midfielders in Mason Mount and Ross Barkley. The dual eight system needed someone defensively solid behind them to work and Kante is the only midfielder currently at Chelsea truly capable of the role. As soon as Kante was injured, Lampard had to readjust to find a new direction.
But the mere fact that Lampard opted for this with his squad all available for the first time implies it is the way he wants to go forward. Chelsea’s transfer activity only further reiterates this. After Maurizio Sarri made up that Kante was not technical enough to play the deepest role, many bought into that notion hook, line, and sinker.
Two things made the role possible and work well even. The first is that Kante is technical enough. He will not spray 1000 passes sideways and backwards like Jorginho, but he holds his own. The other is that as Kante ages his playing style will have to adjust in step. He cannot always be the full throttle terminator in the middle of the pitch. As his legs slow, he will need to rely on his reading of the game on and off the ball. In short, he needs to further emulate Claude Makelele.
Makelele started as a winger and a much more attacking midfielder, but as age caught up with him he was brought deeper on the pitch. His reading of the game allowed him to redefine the role with his very own name. Kante has often been compared to his compatriot French midfielder and a similar development seems to be in play with Lampard as manager.
That being said, Kante does excel in pressing which is more of a role for a player further up the pitch. What Lampard opts to do next season will be interesting to see.
3. How much longer will Chelsea be able to lean on Kante?
Kante is 29 now. He has faced injury issues all season and he has a lot of miles on his body between his time in France and England. He is contracted to Chelsea for another three seasons but between the injuries, his age, and his style of play, he is reaching the dreaded “cliff” that every player finds as they age.
At some point, Kante will slow. The injuries, if they are just a run of bad luck this season, will increase over time. When Kante slows, he will have to adapt, which may be another part of Lampard’s thought process of bringing him deeper.
Eventually, Chelsea will have to face the very real prospect that Kante is not the two-players-in-one monster that he was in his two title wins. Before then, the Blues need to seriously consider whether or not a transfer fee would outweigh what Kante produces on the field.
This is by absolutely no means a call to sell Kante. But if this next season he faces just as many injuries, it will need to be strongly considered. The Blues could benefit from a player like Kante for years to come, but at the same time, he can still fetch an exorbitant transfer fee for another year or two. While Kante is adored, it is also best to have him hitting the cliff at another club as Chelsea counts the cash than hit the cliff at Chelsea and the club to have nothing.
It is a less than ideal situation to consider. Ideally, the Frenchman returns in full fettle throughout next season and that particularly conversation can be delayed. If not, this season will be the turning point of the discussion.
What questions do you think need to be asked of Kante this season? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!