Apples and oranges.
Both Lampard and Sarri played him on the right of a 3 in a role making use of his insane energy levels. Almost like a Ramires type role.
Conte and now Tuchel use him like he played at Leicester and his stats per game are outrageous. He even had Bruno screaming in rage “it’s always him”.
What your trying to do is compare stats of different roles. Almost like that time Everton fans were trying to kid themselves into thinking Idrissa Gueye was superior to Kante.
This season, both have been playing holding roles, where they sometimes can roam forward. Gueye is worse than both. Ndidi and Kante, I honestly don’t see why Kante is better. They are both ball winners, but Ndidi, for me, is a better user of the ball.
I’m going to post some stats from this season, so bear in mind Kante and Ndidi play in a similar standard of team who are very close in the league, and Kante has played 25 games to Ndidi’s 17. This isn’t like that Van Dijk and Mustafi comparison where Mustafi came out on top in every statistic, more like the Vidic to Van Dijk.
| Ndidi | Kante |
Assists | 3 | 2 |
Big chances created | 2 | 2 |
Pass completion % | 86.7 | 86.5 |
% Passes that go forward | 71 | 65 |
Through balls | 1 | 0 |
| Ndidi | Kante |
Blocks per game | 0.47 | 0.16 |
Interceptions per game | 2.5 | 2.16 |
Tackles per game | 2.35 | 1.44 |
Tackles won % | 66 | 51 |
Clearances per game | 2.24 | 0.92 |
Duels won per game | 2.29 | 0.64 |
Didn’t include goals because Ndidi has 1 and Kante none, so there really wasn’t any point as neither are goalscoring midfielders.
So, especially this season, these stats prove that no matter how you judge them, whether it’s watching them play or through stats, Ndidi has been superior no matter the role. Even that, they’ve played almost the same one this season, especially before Tuchel. Obviously now I’d rather buy Ndidi for United because of his age, but even if they were both 24, I’d gladly take Ndidi over Kante.