On
Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher and David Ginola discussed how to get
the best out of N'Golo Kante and Jorginho at Chelsea.
After Chelsea's 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday there has been plenty of
debate about the composition of Maurizio Sarri's midfield and David Ginola
believes the Italian is getting it wrong. The former France international
wants to see N'Golo Kante in a central role.
"In the French team, he plays in the middle," Ginola told Monday Night
Football.
"I don't know who you play on the side but when you have a quality player
like Kante then you play him in the middle.
"I love him because if you take him away from the French team, it doesn't
look the same at all. But he plays in the central position and this is the
key position in modern football.
"For me, Chelsea are wrong to play Kante in that position [on the right].
Chelsea are wrong. He is not good in that position."
"Kante is a very average player in the position he is playing in now," he
said. "I just see a normal midfield player. When he is playing here [deeper]
I see a class midfield player."
It is not just that Kante is not at his best on the right of Sarri's
midfield three. Jorginho, the deep-lying playmaker who is being used in that
central role, is not as effective defensively.
That was a problem against Spurs as he was sucked out of the space for Harry
Kane's goal and then exposed on the counter-attack by Heung-min Son for the
third.
Even so, Carragher is an admirer of Jorginho and does not expect Sarri to
abandon his policy of using the Italy international midfielder centrally.
"Jorginho is not moving from that position," said Carragher. "He is Sarri's
man. He has built his system around him. Kante is not moving because he is
about to sign a massive contract.
"What I would say straight away is that Jorginho has been excellent this
season. Teams are having to change their system and their style at times to
counteract Jorginho. That shows what a good player he is and how important
he has been to Chelsea.
"If he is getting players around him like Dele Alli or Gylfi Sigurdsson or
like Juan Mata did for Manchester United also, this means there should be
space for other players.
"Against Spurs, the space was in the wide areas because they were playing a
diamond so that meant there should have been space for Eden Hazard and
Willian."
So what can Sarri do to stop Chelsea suffering as they did at Wembley?
Carragher believes a minor tweak to the team's shape could be enough to
solve the problem.
"I don't think the balance of this midfield ever looks right with Mateo
Kovacic there," he added. "Maybe Sarri is stuck on a 4-3-3 but I actually
think it is quite simple to play them as a midfield two and maybe with Ross
Barkley or Willian in the No 10 role in a 4-2-3-1.
"It gets Kante back on the ball and it actually relieves a bit of the
pressure on Jorginho because there are now two players looking to receive
the ball and get Chelsea playing.
"But I don't think anything revolutionary has to change. Jorginho is a good
player."
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