Unpopular Opinion - The Overrated N'Golo Kante

[Le Red]

And mustafi had better statistics than van dijk. Sometimes a bit of common sense goes a long way.

In these days where people need to watch Tifo to form an opinion, there'll always be the "but the stats" excuse.

 

[Le Red]

This thread title remembered me why I have such a hard time respecting other people's opinions.

 

[hmchan]

CR7 and Messi have damaged the optics of consistency in Football, now naive people think that if you don't deliver great performances for more than 5 years straight you are somehow "overrated", when in fact most top players don't have more than 5 seasons at top level (and that includes the likes of Maradona,Van Basten,Gullit,R9,etc) and with on and off seasons not straight.

Glad those two will be gone in a couple of years, so we can get back to have realistic optics again.

Every player experiences a poor run of games in their career, and I have never asked Kante to maintain at top level for more than 5 seasons. From what I see, Kante consistently delivers when the team is playing a 2-man midfield and has less possession, and consistently struggles when the team is on the front foot. The debate here is that whether a player should be classified as world class if he only performs in a specific setting against specific opponents. This is clearly related to his strengths and weaknesses, not a temporary drop of form.

 

[Morty_]

Every player experiences a poor run of games in their career, and I have never asked Kante to maintain at top level for more than 5 seasons. From what I see, Kante consistently delivers when the team is playing a 2-man midfield and has less possession, and consistently struggles when the team is on the front foot. The debate here is that whether a player should be classified as world class if he only performs in a specific setting against specific opponents. This is clearly related to his strengths and weaknesses, not a temporary drop of form.

Kante doesnt perform just against specific opponents, whatever the hell that even means.

Kante is world class, simple as that.

 

[Pow]

Every player experiences a poor run of games in their career, and I have never asked Kante to maintain at top level for more than 5 seasons. From what I see, Kante consistently delivers when the team is playing a 2-man midfield and has less possession, and consistently struggles when the team is on the front foot. The debate here is that whether a player should be classified as world class if he only performs in a specific setting against specific opponents. This is clearly related to his strengths and weaknesses, not a temporary drop of form.

How can he have been integral in 2 different league winning sides considering those games you say he excells in only constitute like 6/8 games of said 38 games season ?

 

[thepolice123]

Great player and clearly one of the best in his position today but the ballon d'Or talks are outrageous.

 

[mancan92]

Every player experiences a poor run of games in their career, and I have never asked Kante to maintain at top level for more than 5 seasons. From what I see, Kante consistently delivers when the team is playing a 2-man midfield and has less possession, and consistently struggles when the team is on the front foot. The debate here is that whether a player should be classified as world class if he only performs in a specific setting against specific opponents. This is clearly related to his strengths and weaknesses, not a temporary drop of form.

Yet won a world Cup with a dominant French team and pl/cl with a dominant Chelsea teams where they have more possession. Your embarrassing yourself

 

[Normandy]

This thread title remembered me why I have such a hard time respecting other people's opinions.

Tell me about...Kante is the best at what he does in football. Excellent athlete and has a good football IQ.

 

[hmchan]

Yet won a world Cup with a dominant French team and pl/cl with a dominant Chelsea teams where they have more possession. Your embarrassing yourself

France was famous for giving up possession in their WC victory, averaging 49% possession and was ranked 19 out of 32 teams. Chelsea had the least possession out of the big 6 in 16/17 and Conte was known for his counter attacking tactics. And finally, Chelsea's possession in the last 3 matches of this season's CL: 49%, 32%, 40%. Dominant? You are embarrassing yourself.

 

[mancan92]

France was famous for giving up possession in their WC victory, averaging 49% possession and was ranked 19 out of 32 teams. Chelsea had the least possession out of the big 6 in 16/17 and Conte was known for his counter attacking tactics. And finally, Chelsea's possession in the last 3 matches of this season's CL: 49%, 32%, 40%. Dominant? You are embarrassing yourself.

Look at what you have argued possession at 50/50 and you actually picked the game kante was taken out early cause he was sick in the world Cup. Why not all the other games when he was the best player on the pitch. Also again you have picked another 50/50 champions league game.

Also you completely forgot that Chelsea were winning against real Madrid in both games early on so would obviously be more defensive. You then completely ignore the fact Chelsea are dominant in 99% of games yet kante has been excellent this season since being put in his right position. What about the whole season Chelsea won the league and he was the best player? Again you have picked 3 out liners in where they had less possession. Don't you think you are making your own point against yourself?

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

Every player experiences a poor run of games in their career, and I have never asked Kante to maintain at top level for more than 5 seasons. From what I see, Kante consistently delivers when the team is playing a 2-man midfield and has less possession, and consistently struggles when the team is on the front foot. The debate here is that whether a player should be classified as world class if he only performs in a specific setting against specific opponents. This is clearly related to his strengths and weaknesses, not a temporary drop of form.

Sorry, care to name some of these matches where Chelsea have been on the front foot and Kante has "consistently struggled"? Surely it must be easy if it's such a regular occurrence.

 

[Ekkie Thump]

Sorry, care to name some of these matches where Chelsea have been on the front foot and Kante has "consistently struggled"? Surely it must be easy if it's such a regular occurrence.

I think it's more that the team as a whole has often struggled to break opponents down in games where they see a lot of the ball. Burnley or whatever, games where you don't really need a player who's superpower is breaking up play and where you're sacrificing a player with offensive creativity and incisive passing in order to include him.

Kante is like that high powered mutant in X-men where any other mutant that gets close just loses all their power. Offensively though he's incapable of crushing Wolverine or whomever with a mind flung tree. He's just absolutely world class at nullifying attacks and recycling the ball. This makes him almost invaluable in a counter attacking structure or as part of a high press in games where the opponent's strategy is possession based. In games where the opponent's strategy is defend deep, thump it long and hope to score headers he's less useful.

To me that doesn't mean he's not world class of course. He was a key player in a team that won the world's biggest trophy and was the single best player in a team that just won the most glamorous competition at club level. He's successfully competed on the world stage and stood out while doing it. If you're one of the most important players in your team and your team has proved to be among the best on Earth then the term 'world class' loses all sense if it doesn't include you. "But he's always shit against stoke" might well be true but it tarnishes none of the lustre of consistently demonstrating superiority while being pitted against the very best.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Great player and clearly one of the best in his position today but the ballon d'Or talks are outrageous.

Yeah I agree. Terrific player, and superb at what he does. But he shouldn't be a contender for that at all. Have to say his performances under Lampard and Sarri caused me to underrate him.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

I think it's more that the team as a whole has often struggled to break opponents down in games where they see a lot of the ball. Burnley or whatever, games where you don't really need a player who's superpower is breaking up play and where you're sacrificing a player with offensive creativity and incisive passing in order to include him.

Kante is like that high powered mutant in X-men where any other mutant that gets close just loses all their power. Offensively though he's incapable of crushing Wolverine or whomever with a mind flung tree. He's just absolutely world class at nullifying attacks and recycling the ball. This makes him almost invaluable in a counter attacking structure or as part of a high press in games where the opponent's strategy is possession based. In games where the opponent's strategy is defend deep, thump it long and hope to score headers he's less useful.

To me that doesn't mean he's not world class of course. He was a key player in a team that won the world's biggest trophy and was the single best player in a team that just won the most glamorous competition at club level. He's successfully competed on the world stage and stood out while doing it. If you're one of the most important players in your team and your team has proved to be among the best on Earth then the term 'world class' loses all sense if it doesn't include you. "But he's always shit against stoke" might well be true but it tarnishes none of the lustre of consistently demonstrating superiority while being pitted against the very best.

While the results haven't always been there, this is because we lack a clinical finisher up top. Much has been made over Chelsea's supposed slump in form over the past month - looking at the underlying chance creation numbers we've been every bit as good as we have been since Tuchel came in.

It's mind-boggling to me that anyone would even consider blaming Kante for this - if anything he helps us hugely in these games because his presence allows us to attack with more abandon.