THREAD - DMs

Chelsea fans have been sucked in by Guardiolas success, as well as having Sarri as manager. All of a sudden, the only way to play football is possession-based with a ball playing CDM. I saw someone state that "Kante can't play the Jorginho role" as a DM. (1/...)

Thats right! Kante in DM isnt meant to play the Jorginho role!

A ball-playing CDM who controls possession is only ONE way to play football. Its also a very specific and limited way of playing which wont be successful unless your whole team is built around that philosophy!

Kante vs Villa did NOT play the Jorginho role! He played as a traditional DM, shielding the defence and moving the ball forwards/sideways to his CMs&FBs to propagate the play. His role was not to break down the Villa bus!

Against smaller teams, this is far more effective! Jorginho is not an efficient shield for the defence, so required a Kante/Kova beside him to help with defensive duties. He isn't pacy enough to cover his FBs so they have to be more cautious. Thus our overall penetration suffers.

Meanwhile, having Kante there allowed us to play Mount+Barkley as 8s in the second half. It also allowed Azpi+Alonso to spend most of the game on the wings, as they had Kantes pace to cover them. Meanwhile, in possession, Kante could either play simple passes sideways, or when...

given more time, he could play cross-field passes to his fullbacks.

To be successful, you do NOT need a deep lying playmaker. To break down defences, you do NOT need a DLP. To dominate possession, you do NOT need a DLP. Very few teams play this style!

Historically, Chelsea have used the likes of Makalele, Essien, Mikel & Matic in this role to great success. They were all WC in their position. None of them were WC passers!

Having a dedicated DM allows you to play two 8s (Mount/RLC/Ross/Havertz). This is far more beneficial...

for our offence and dominance than playing Jorginho with a B2B (Kante/Kova) and only one AM.

So in conclusion? Don't judge Kante in the DM role according to Jorginho's skills - that's a very limited view of football!

Edit: other recent examples of successful DMs who were not elite passers
Vieira
Fernandinho (pre-Pep)
Casemiro
Javi Martinez
Cambiasso
De Rossi
Mascherano
Gattuso

@CentarBack you might enjoy this