Chelsea boss Frank Lampard utilised N’Golo Kanté in an advanced midfield role, in a similar way Kanté was used under Maurizio Sarri.
However, since the season’s resumption, Lampard has featured Kanté in a defensive midfield position, and we are beginning to see the best of Kanté’s defensive attributes.
Kanté had a good game in the 3-0 win against Watford on Saturday night and he has earned the praise of teammate Mason Mount who was named man of the match.
According to Mount, Kanté’s position in the defensive midfield area enabled him and Ross Barkley to attack with freewill.
Mount said: “When you’ve got N’Golo behind you, so solid and covers everywhere, you don’t need to worry too much about getting back and defending because he’s always there. That’s a massive help.
“All me and Ross try and do is link the play up, get in the box and try and score goals and create chances. That’s our job when we’re in the team, and it worked well.
“They started off with two blocks of four, making it difficult for us to break them down and get chances, so that kind of through pass you have to punch it in, because if you don’t it’s going to get intercepted,” added Mount of his pass to Barkley.
“I tried to disguise it a bit, I saw him in the pocket and I just tried to wrap it in. It was a good touch [from Barkley], good through ball, and it was good timing from Oli and a good finish.
“It’s down to us to perform. We were in a good position before West Ham but we lost, and that’s kind of how our season has gone. We have bounced back from defeats. We can get the wins when the pressure’s on and we need to get as many three points as we can.”