The manager of Chelsea football club, Thomas Tuchel has highlighted some of the attributes of the club’s midfielder, N’Golo Kante that make him a delight to have in any team.
On Sunday, September 19, 2021, Chelsea traveled to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to play against their London rivals. In the first half of the Premier League game, Tottenham Hotspur dominated their visitors.
Chelsea looked so ordinary in most parts of the first half which left the club’s manager unhappy. Tuchel was so unpleased that he had to have a touchline meeting with the club’s captain Cesar Azpilicueta.
Despite the opportunities Tottenham Hotspur had to take the lead, the first half managed to end in a goalless draw.
“I was absolutely not happy with the first 45 minutes,” Thomas Tuchel told Sky Sports. “There were individual performances which were great in the first half from Kepa and Thiago Silva but in general we lacked intent, energy, and relentless in duels and 50-50 balls.”
In the second half, the coach decided to change his formation to 4-5-2. He substituted Mason Mount before the first half kicked off and introduced N’Golo Kante.
Immediately the first half started, Chelsea completely took over the game. They proved that they were in control of the second half by scoring in the 49th minute, thanks to Thiago Silva’s header.
Oh Thiago Silva! 🎶 pic.twitter.com/3azAwXfrbo
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 19, 2021
In the 57th minute, N’Golo Kante proved that he does not only know how to win duels, maintain possession, provide assists, make passes, and make interceptions, he scored a deflected goal outside the eighteen yard box to make it 2-0.
In the second minute of the injury time, the club’s defender Antonio Rudiger made it three after taking advantage of Timo Werner’s assist.
After the 3-0 away victory, Thomas Tuchel could not stop praising N’Golo Kante. He described the 30-year-old French midfielder as an unbelievable talent.
“If you have N’Golo, you have something that everybody is looking for,” Tuchel said.
“You have everything that you need in midfield. You have work-rate, intensity, ball-wins, skillful play, off the ball, with the ball, dribbling, drive, and, today, even a goal.
“I see this every day in training and it’s hard to believe how good he is. Don’t make the mistake of reducing him to ball-wins. He plays excellent in every possession game we have in training.
“He’s a unique guy. We were strong in midfield with him, Jorgi [Jorginho], and Kova [Mateo Kovacic] in the second half.
“N’Golo is N’Golo, he’s fantastic…
“If you have N’Golo on the bench and you want to step up in these patterns of the game, it’s the best player to bring because he is unique and he can change any momentum.
“It seemed to be a more defensive [change], but we wanted to improve our compactness, our ball-wins, our spirit as a team, and have a higher intensity and work-rate in our match to win balls actively, put the match in the opponents half, and then rely on our skills.
“That was the idea behind it. I am happy with the reaction. The reaction was absolutely needed.
“We played a very, very strong second half to deserve this win.”
Good morning, all the #MondayMotivation we need! 👊 pic.twitter.com/1XwiIkQCPD
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 20, 2021
