N’Golo Kante started his first full game this season vs Liverpool in midweek and immediately Chelsea looked a more cohesive unit.
The Frenchman picked up an injury during the pre-season training which is why he failed to start the first Premier League game of the season and Chelsea ended up losing that game 4-0.
While the Blues lost the UEFA Super Cup game too but they fought almost neck to neck with Jurgen Klopp’s side and this was primarily due to the hard work of N’Golo Kante.
The World Cup winner was returning back from injury which meant that he should have played around 80 odd minutes in the game in order to avoid risking another injury.
But instead, the midfielder ended up playing the whole game – including extra time and speaking about his work ethics, Frank Lampard chose to call N’Golo Kante a ‘machine’.
“Well, he’s an amazing player. Amazing character, he just comes to play, he’s humble in his life but when he gets on the football pitch he’s a machine,” said the Blues boss(as reported).
“Of course he’s going to be hugely important. And this is a player that hasn’t trained much, had a swollen ankle two days ago when we played on Sunday evening and he’s wanted to play today and managed to cover 120 minutes and I think you saw what he brings to the team today.
“And there will be more because as I say he hasn’t trained much.
“But I’m delighted to work with him, I respect him so much as a player, and now it’s really nice to work with him and he’ll be big for us.
“He said to me at half-time in extra-time that his legs were finished, his legs were dead; and then he’s sprinting 50 yards to cover.”
Many experts had predicted that N’Golo Kante would get his old role back in defensive midfield now that Maurizio Sarri has returned back to Italy but even the new manager likes to use him in a more advanced role.
And while Kante has seen most of his success while playing in a deep-lying role, he has made it clear that he will happily play in the new position because his manager wants him to.
