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Maurizio
Sarri must move N'Golo Kante to his natural defensive midfield position to
prevent Chelsea's opponents from "taking advantage" of Jorginho, according
to Danny Higginbotham.
Sarri has come under increasing pressure to alter his approach after
Chelsea's poor run of form saw them fall out of the Premier League top four
before they exited the FA Cup at the hands of Manchester United on Monday.
Italy midfielder Jorginho followed Sarri to Stamford Bridge from Napoli last
summer and the head coach has insisted on starting the 27-year-old at the
base of his midfield, while deploying Kante in a more advanced role.
"He doesn't necessarily need to change his system but I think he needs to
change the midfield three in terms of the dynamics of it," Higginbotham told
Sky Sports News.
"At the moment you have Jorginho as the only real holder and I think that's
a big problem because teams are taking advantage of that.
"Manchester City did, Bournemouth did, and Manchester United did."
Chelsea's last Premier League fixture ended in a chastening 6-0 defeat at
Manchester City and Sarri's side now face the daunting task of a rematch
with the champions in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
Fernandinho has played a crucial role in City's assault on a quadruple and
Higginbotham believes Sarri could learn from Guardiola's use of the
Brazilian defensive midfielder.
"You look at Kante along with Fernandinho, they're two of the best defensive
midfielders in world football," Higginbotham said.
"Look at Fernandinho what he does for Manchester City. Kante should be doing
that for Chelsea and he's not. He won the Premier League doing it for
Leicester, he won the Premier League doing it for Chelsea and he won the
World Cup doing it for France, so it should be good enough for this team.
"It would enable Jorginho, it would free him up a little bit."