Fulham boss Claudio Ranieri must find a battery like N'Golo Kante to recharge side

Mentor: Claudio Ranieri enjoyed a special relationship with N’Golo Kante at Leicester
PA
Giuseppe Muro30 November 2018

Maurizio Sarri has criticised N’Golo Kante this week — but what Claudio Ranieri would do to be reunited with the “battery” that charged his title success with Leicester.

Ranieri returns to Stamford Bridge with Fulham on Sunday, when his new team will come up against a player who was key to the highlight of his managerial career.

Sarri does not think Kante is technically good enough to play in central midfield and the Italian is still searching for a way to get the best out of him, but Ranieri desperately needs a destroyer with the Frenchman’s industry and energy.

Ranieri wants Fulham to play in a similar style to his Leicester side where Kante, the defensive screen in front of the back four, was crucial. He was so influential that Steve Walsh, who worked closely with Ranieri at Leicester, joked that they “played three in midfield, Danny Drinkwater in the middle, with Kante either side”.

Kante is almost a one-off, with his lung-bursting running, ability to steal possession, carry the ball forward and provide the springboard for breaks.

There are not many clubs who possess a player like him in their ranks but Fulham do not have a player even in his mould. Calum Chambers played as the deep-lying midfielder in the win against Southampton last weekend, with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Kevin McDonald injured. The trio each have different qualities in that position, but they do not cover the ground like Kante and Fulham need protection for a defence that has leaked 33 goals in 13 matches. Zambo-Anguissa, who played the role in a midfield two at Marseille, is likely to be given the job of anchor when he is fit.

Kante was the key man for Ranieri at Leicester, but Ranieri also had a major influence on the midfielder.

Ranieri at first needed some convincing before Leicester signed Kante for £5.6million from Caen in 2015, but he was a revelation. Under Ranieri, he was part of the ‘band of brothers’ who had a close bond with the Italian and won the title. Kante was also voted PFA player of the year, got into the France squad and saw his career take off.

In Pictures | Fulham vs Southampton | 24/11/18

1/12

“He was our battery,” said Ranieri, after Kante joined Chelsea for £32m after his title-success at Leicester. “With N’Golo, we played with 12 players and, fortunately, the referee never counted how many we had on the field.”

Kante was again key to Chelsea winning the title under Antonio Conte in his first season at Stamford Bridge, but his role has changed under Sarri, being given a more attacking position. Jorginho has taken his place and Sarri wants to build his team around the £50m summer signing from Napoli.

Instead, Sarri wants Kante to fill the role the Brazilian midfielder Allan had at Napoli.

“N’Golo can play every single position in midfield,” said team-mate Olivier Giroud this week.

Leicester's battery: N'Golo Kante
Action Images via Reuters

“In the manager’s philosophy, how he wants us to play, Jorginho is the holding midfielder or Cesc. Maybe in the manager’s mind, N’Golo is more efficient playing that position box-to-box. He can be more efficient carrying the ball, finding passes between the lines.

“We know how fast he is. When he recovers the ball, he can penetrate the lines.

“That is one of his main strengths. It is a good position for him. He maybe needs to be more selfish around the box when he has the opportunity.

“I am pretty sure he will score more goals. We know it is not his main strength, but he is very important for us in recovering the ball. He is everywhere.”

Ranieri knows that better than most.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in