He can do what Makelele did and has also more tools indeed.
Unpopular Opinion - The Overrated N'Golo Kante
- Thread starter hmchan
- Start date
Wasn't the cafe saying Herrera was better than him 
The younger version of Makélélé was like Kanté, people tend to remember the late 20s and beyond 30 version. Chelsea only saw the older version but Makélélé was initially a wide player, then a defensive box to box for Nantes/Vigo and then he became a figurative wall infront of defenses.
I can remember listening to a few ‘expert’ journalists saying Kanté was a huge problem for Lampard. The only issue is that Lampard wasn’t playing him in his correct position. Tuchel has corrected that and ever since Chelsea have looked so much better.
The group that played for Spain and Madrid/Barca between 2008 & 2012.
they didn't win EL as they only played in UCL.
Cassillas, Ramos, Poyol, Pique, Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, and D.Villa
Pretty much. His abilities suit a midfield 2.
He's most effective winning the ball, ideally high up the pitch.
Lamps and Sarri both tried shoehorne him in to a 3.
Maybe Makalele is the better as a pure CDM, while Kante who is a Box to Box type of CM is better in contribution to the attacking of the team, both are very different players.
Pedro did.
i remember Makelele when he played for RM, he used to execute a lot those accurate penetrative through passes from deep, he also had the close control and skill to beat the press, but as you said, he became a wall in front of the defense, reading the game and breaking up play, he was so good at that.
Nah, not really. Makelele was very similar for most of his career. I'd say in terms of ability the two are more or less the same. Kanté's edges it for achievements. Btw i'd say the same wrt Vieira(who was a different player indeed)
Yes, i missed out Pedro, so you are right as well as the question includes PL, the ones i mentioned didnt win PL, Pedro not only won PL, he also won EL, very impressive haul.
Iirc scored in every final in club football
Ie all the cups in Spain the cwc the supercup the cl final the europa final
he didn't score in WC 2010, Ineista did.
Big L for the OP.
The Bayern core of the 72-74 German NT did (CWC, not EL of course). The Euros were just a smaller KO tournament back then, though. But the EC hattrick kind of makes up for it.
Kante cements himself as a Premier League midfield great, probably the best engine room centre midfielder since Keane and Vieira.
A true world class player delivers consistently in both big games and other games, period.
Massive role. He was France's top scorer, but missed the final.
true world class player can not deliver every time either. If two ‘true world class’ player play against each other, only 1 can win, despite the losing team having that true world class player.
zidane head butt,
United 2 losing finals to Barcelona
Robben with that gigantic misser at the World Cup final
France losing to Portugal in 2016, having the superior team.
Gotze winning Germany the World Cup despite Argentinia having the legendary Messi.
Ibrahimovic never winning a CL.
football is a team sport as well, world class individual player(s) can make a difference (which historically they have done), but a organized team with an ‘inferior’ team can defeat a team with a superior team (which historically has happened also frequently).It all depends on the form on the day (and luck) during the most important moments.
Nobody is going to bump this thread after he puts in a great performance against Sheffield United because nobody cares.It’s expected that the best players put in performances against these sides. The expectation is less in big semi-final / final matches because you have more pressure and you’re playing against high quality opposition. It’s pretty simple.
All your examples prove for me that big games do not necessarily mean everything. A player can be world class if he can deliver consistently, despite losing in big games. Vice versa, a player should not be considered as world class if he only performs in big games, while struggling in other games. Kante is the latter.
Or because he never puts in a great performance against smaller sides.
He didn't had a massive role and he was a substitute for every games after Paraguay, the only game where he was key was the second game against Saudi Arabia. Now he played his part but there was nothing massive about it and in general none of the attacking players had a massive role, the team was all about defense.
Fred’s better though 
A defensive midfielder like Kante is rarely going to stand out against smaller sides when Chelsea have 65% possession and look to dominate the game...but what is noticeable is Chelsea are much worse without him. They lost to Villa and West Brom in the run-in when he was missing and drew with Brighton.
Whoever made this thread should be banned.
I'm done repeating myself. Please just refer to the OP.
You caught him on a bad run of form, amid a good spell of 7 years of football. The no good against the small sides argument doesn't hold up for me.
Germany had a superior team, I'd take Neuer,Lahm,Kroos,Schweinsteiger, Muller, and Hummels over what Argentina had in the same positions.
The only superior player Argentina had was Messi and Higuaín (who chokes on finals and knockout matches), that's 2 vs 7-8 better german players in their respective positions.
The team with better players won.
Exactly. Makelele was a hall of fame player. Just like Kante. No need to diminish either in comparison.
Best player on the pitch yesterday in the final...
Vieira was great when he broke up play, but he was a bit underrated when he roamed forward like Kante.
I don’t disagree that Germany had the better players. The point was that you can have teams with world class players, but even a team with (a) world class player(s), can lose to a superior team. Likewise an ‘inferior’ team can win against an superior team. This was in regards to a comment saying that true word class players will always make a difference... unless your playing against even more world class players on the opponent’s side.
Yes you’re right, another stupid caf threadWasn't the cafe saying Herrera was better than him
I agree that big games do not necessarily define a player, but they do as well. Messi is the greatest if not one of the all time greats and he never managed to win a World Cup, except for a final against Germany. Ronaldo (cr7) likewise and many more other players.
I agree that there are players who do well in tournaments, but don’t seem to do well in competitions. One example in football history was that shock win of Greece winning that European Cup in 2004, with Charisteas scoring the header. He managed to win his country a legendary European cup but never developed into a world class footballer outside of that. You have many more example of these type of players.
So yes, one specific tournament doesn’t necessarily define you as a player in the overall context of being world class. It does add to legacy if you are already world class and on top of that being able to deliver on the big stage(s) of finals.
This thread is almost akin to there being one on a rival forum back the in the day called 'unpopular opinion - the overrated Roy Keane'.
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Of course Kante can't be considered world class. He only stands out as utterly superb when competing on the world stage against actual world class players.
This is interesting. I think this is the case with a lot of players who end up in the prem towards the latter stages of their career. Especially during the times when other leagues, especially outside of the top clubs, weren’t as accessible as they are now. We see when they’re usually a little more static, and less dynamic than their younger counterpart may have been, and miss out on the evolution of the player.
As for Kante Makelele, I really like both and think that they were positionally and stylistically different enough that a comparison is pointless (at least the makelele that played for Madrid and Chelsea). I actually think they’d be a great partnership, maybe not the tallest but that wouldn’t be the problem today that it was years ago.
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Overrated? Christ.