Kante must stick to role in Chelsea midfield: Sarri

LONDON: Maurizio Sarri has ordered N’golo Kante to stick to his role in midfield after holding individual post-mortems with his Chelsea players following their defeat to Tottenham.

Spurs won 3-1 at Wembley on Saturday to end Sarri’s 18-game unbeaten start to competitive action with the Blues and the Italian coach wants to see a reaction.

French World Cup winner Kante won two Premier League titles, with Leicester and Chelsea, playing in central midfield, but has been deployed out of position on the right to accommodate Italy playmaker Jorginho. The 27-year-old signed a new five-year contract last week and was voted Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the year for 2016-17.

“I want to play a centre midfielder who is very technical. For me the centre midfielder is Jorginho or (Cesc) Fabregas,” Sarri said.

“I don’t want Kante in this position. Kante in the last match wanted to solve the match after the first 15 minutes, but in the wrong way.

“He was lost in the position, he attacked the other penalty area too much. And I think it’s not one of the best characteristics of Kante. It was only a reaction to the difficulties (we were having).”