The Chelsea midfielder has made 15 Premier League starts this season, with Frank Lampard and Maurizio Sarri before him preferring to use N’Golo Kante in a more advanced role. Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante is undoubtedly one of the best defensive midfielders in world football. Tenacious, athletic, intelligent, diligent and disciplined, he has the ideal skill set to sit in front of the defence, contain any looming dangers, break up play, and then instigate attacks going the other way.
But since Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard have taken the helm at Chelsea, Kante’s natural position has changed. He has shifted into a box-to-box role, pushed higher up the pitch, away from the natural shielding duties that he is so excellent at.
Of the 15 Premier League starts he has made this season, only six have come as a defensive midfielder. Chelsea won four of those games. In contrast, they won just one of his nine starts as a central midfielder. And yet, Lampard, like Sarri before him, seems insistent on using Kante in a more advanced role.
This leads to a rather pressing question: is it time for Chelsea to cash in on the Frenchman, amid links over a £100m move to Real Madrid?
It might seem foolish to offload one of your star players, but there is method to the apparent madness. First and foremost, there are the outlined positional difficulties. Where does Kante fit into the Chelsea system other than as a central midfielder? And if that is where Lampard wants to use him, are there not better options to turn to?
Then there is his age. Kante will turn 29 this summer. As Chelsea continue their rebuilding under Lampard, perhaps cashing in on an ageing midfielder who does not fit the system is a smart move. Will Kante be the same all-action midfielder that he has been in two or three years time? It is reasonable to doubt it, especially as the injuries have slowly piled up this season – he has missed 14 games this season through injury already.
And finally, the likes of Billy Gilmour, Mateo Kovacic and the need to invest in other positions perhaps make Kante expendable. At present, Chelsea are a better team with Kante than without, of course, but the inordinate price he could fetch in the transfer market would allow Lampard to sign an elite centre-forward, winger, left-back or centre-back, positions that are more troubling at present.
It never feels comfortable to advocate selling one of your best players. But as Chelsea look to build a team under Lampard, just as Liverpool and Philippe Coutinho illustrated so brilliantly, this summer might be the ideal opportunity to cash in on Kante.