N'Golo Kante's remarkable contribution to the French defensive system.
The short man, who was the principal pillar in Leicester City's historic Premier League coronation, was also acclaimed as France's best defensive player in its winning World Cup campaign. I'll talk briefly about Kante's position and challenges that he faced during his defensive work, based on 3 games: Argentina, Belgium, and Croatia.
France defended in a 433 and Kante was deployed in the center, having Matuidi on his left hand and Pogba on his right one. However, France switched into a 442 defensive structure in the Final and that made us see Kante as a left interior.
Kante is claimed by commentators and pundits that he is a player who can do the work of 2 or 3 players relentlessly and I think we could see his work rate in this World Cup because Kanté used to move laterally from one side to the other according to the position of the ball. That means that he supported Matuidi on the left half-space and then shifted to the right half-space to defend alongside with Pogba when the ball was played there.
People are exaggerating when they think Kanté's value is in his interceptions because in this World Cup he achieved just a few in the matches mentioned above at least. So if you think that Kante had a great World Cup because you heard that he stopped many balls, I'm afraid you cannot be completely right. In other words, people appreciate Kante for stopping Messi and they have an image that he dispossessed Messi in an ordinary one on one's several times, while Kante only intercepted the ball once from him. Yes, Kante stopped Messi but not for the interceptions. Yes, Kante defended well, but not for stopping passes.
The key to Kanté's success is his positioning and anticipation because he blocks central passing lanes so the opponent doesn't play a central pass in the first place because he knows it will be intercepted. Kanté is proactive and the opponent has to react to get past him or to avoid him.
The French players sang after the World Cup to praise Kante "Il a stoppé Leo Messi" which means "he stopped Leo Messi" and it went viral in the media. Kante was tasked to mark closely 2 of the World's best technical players who are Messi and Modric. Deschamps adopted a similar game to stop Messi and Modric and it has similar effects on both players' movements and reactions.
But the question is, did Kanté real stop Messi and Modric alone?
Despite being humiliated on 2 occasions by Messi's magical dribbles, Messi's 2 assists and being beaten by Modric in a few situations, I think Kante largely succeeded in these battles. However, he wasn't alone because the whole team contributed to this. But Kante was the player to follow and chase them everywhere on the field.
France's central midfield pushed the opponents out wide and players like Messi and Modric were forced to drift near the sideline to support their teammates in beating the pressure resulted by the presence of the sideline. Furthermore, Kanté followed them and occupied the left half-space and that pushed them to go even wider near Matuidi. As a result, Modric and Messi found a space to receive the ball few steps near the touchline only because of Kanté's awareness and Matuidi's support. Messi, like Modric, had to beat Matuidi first and then overcome Kante if they wanted to cut inside with the ball. To illustrate, Matuidi dispossessed Messi much more than Kante did.
But in case Messi or Modric received the ball inside the field, they had to deal with Kante at their back who prevented them from moving forward with the ball and then Matuidi rushed to intercept the ball. In addition, Pogba was on Kante's right side on the same line in a more central space and that prevented Messi from beating Kante by making an inside run as well.
Kante didn't give any chance for Modric or Messi to receive the ball in a central space with their face to the goal because he was always at their back and they had to protect the ball. If Modric dropped deep in the early build-up, Kante made a run after him to make sure he doesn't turn his face to France's goal. As a consequence, Messi and Modric had to play backward passes in order to protect the ball or to find another solution later. Kante was right to force them to play with their back to the French net because they beat him in 1vs1 situations when they faced the French goal. This was the case in Belgium's game when Kante stepped forward to stop Hazard because the latter entered in Kanté's zone. Hazard had the freedom to step in central areas and both flanks and that helped him find free spaces easily. Kante tried 3 times to stop Hazard in 1vs1 situations but he failed in every trial because Hazard took him on thanks to his early movement and surprise.
In other words, Kante is beaten by the best dribblers in the world if he is alone and when they have their face towards his goal. Saying that he is unbeatable is a Myth.
Furthermore, France's 3 forwards isolated Argentina's midfielders from Messi and prevented them from breaking the lines and we've seen that in Argentina's negative possession. In addition, Giroud and especially Griezmann withdrew and dropped deeper to steal the ball from Messi, Hazard, and Modric. For example, Griezmann followed Messi into the box and prevented him from taking a deadly shot and had several physical duels against him and he also fouled Hazard badly. Giroud, on the other hand, had several defensive contributions in deep and advanced areas.
We can't argue Kante's success but I think he had 2 above the average games against Belgium and Croatia. First, in Croatia's match, Kante got lost in the midfield because it was the game of aerial long balls, second balls, and physical work, and we know he is short. Second, in Belgium's game, Kante couldn't really cover central areas and it was a heavy task for him because Matuidi and Pogba were stretched across the field and occupied wide areas, leaving the middle to Kante alone. Therefore, the French midfield dynamo had to cover a huge space. As a result, Belgium could attack centrally, break the lines and create serious threats to France's defense. But in other few occasions when the midfield was compact, Kanté was unable to intercept central passes. However, he did a good job and also nullified De Bruyne and initiated some quick attacks.
