There has been so much discussion in the past 12 months about where on the pitch N’Golo Kante is most effective, but Frank Lampard refused to be drawn into the debate today, instead explaining what the Frenchman can offer wherever he is deployed.
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Lampard’s predecessor Maurizio Sarri selected Kante on the right-hand side of the midfield three, and not in the more central position he made his name with at Leicester. Against Liverpool on Wednesday it was Kante nominally on the right again, with Jorginho sitting.
‘The important thing for all my midfield is that we have a flexibility and nobody is pinned down to an absolute structure,’ stressed Lampard at his press conference this afternoon.
‘We saw elements of that against Liverpool, where the players had the freedom to use their attributes.
‘The idea he wins the ball as well as anyone in world football doesn’t mean he has to sit in front of the back four. He has too much in his game: driving forward with the ball, leaving midfield areas and winning the ball back high up the pitch.’
