Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has ended the debate on who will play at the heart of the Blues midfield.
There have been discussions from the outside looking in on whether Jorginho should stay at the base of the Chelsea midfield or whether N’Golo Kante should step in.
Kante vs Jorginho: five things you need to know
- Jorginho signed for Chelsea in the summer from Napoli and has been Sarri’s first choice at the base of the midfield.
- This position was previously covered by Kante who has had to play in a slightly more advanced role to fit into the team.
- Jorginho has played in 13 Premier League matches, scoring one goal. He has recorded an average pass rate of 91% and on average makes 95.2 passes per 90 minutes.
- Kante has also played in 13 Premier League games, scoring and assisting once. He has recorded an average pass rate of 88.4% and on average makes 57.2 passes per 90 minutes.
- Both of Kante’s stats are worse off than last season where he had an average pass rate of 89.3% and averaged 63.3 passes per 90 minutes.
After Chelsea’s poor performance against Tottenham Hotspur in the late Saturday kick-off – where they lost out 3-1 to Mauricio Pochettino’s side – Sarri faced questions regarding Jorginho’s ability to dictate the Blues midfield.
Responding in no uncertain terms, Sarri insisted that Jorginho was still the number one choice for the position and that Kante would not be slotting back into the position which saw him elevate through English football not so long ago.
Speaking to reporters about the Chelsea midfield, Sarri said: “I think as you know I want to play a central midfielder who is a very technical player, for me the centre midfielder is either Jorginho or Fabregas. I don’t want Kante in this position,’ said Sarri.
“Kante wanted to solve the match [against Tottenham] in the first 15 mins but in the wrong way, he attacked the other box too much, I think this one is not one of the best characteristics of Kante, but it was only a reaction to the difficulties.”
When a reporter asked whether Kante knows exactly what his role in the team is, Sarri responded: “Maybe, maybe it’s only a question of time
“But Kante has to stay near to Jorginho, especially when the ball is on the other side.
“When he is on the left he has to stay very close to Jorginho.”
Sarri was pressed further on whether his instructions for Kante to stay close to Jorginho are in any way contradictory when demanding more goals and action in the final third.
“It depends on the action. If we are on the left, no. ‘If we are on the left we have [Marcos] Alonso, [Mateo] Kovacic, [Ross] Barkley, and so in that situation he has to stay very close to Jorginho.”
Jorginho and Kante: what’s the issue?
The main issue seems to lay with Sarri’s inability to get the best out of Kante rather than any real failings from Jorginho.
Kante is universally respected as one of, if not the, best defensive midfielders in the world and his ability to read the game, intercept and start attacking moves from his own half was a main contributing factor in the successes had at Leicester City, Chelsea and this summer with France at the World Cup.
N’Golo Kanté has made 100+ tackles in every season of top-flight football:
2014/15: 176
2015/16: 175
2016/17: 126
2017/18: 113He has made 22 so far this season.
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With Kante occupying a more advanced position, his defensive work hasn’t been utilised to its maximum and it isn’t clear as to where he should be positioned on the pitch throughout the 90 minutes.
For Jorginho, he has settled into the Chelsea line-up quickly and established himself as Sarri’s preferred choice but he lacks the bite and edge to his play that has endeared Kante to the Premier League.
It seems Sarri’s system can be highly successful for Chelsea but this puzzle currently has all of the right pieces in some wrong places, which needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
The post Sarri explains why Jorginho will continue at the base of Chelsea’s midfield appeared first on Squawka News.
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