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Murphy: Sarri should have moved Kante to defensive midfield against Spurs

Danny Murphy reckons Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri made a major mistake by not moving N’Golo Kante into a more defensive midfield role during his sides 3-1 defeat against Spurs on Saturday evening.

France international Kante has established himself as one of, if not the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League since his arrival in English football in 2015.

However, the 27-year-old has found himself shifted to a more attacking role since the arrival of Sarri at Stamford Bridge, with the Italian coach preferring to use £57 million summer signing Jorginho at the base of his midfield instead.

While Jorginho is a wonderful passer of the ball, he lacks the tenacity of Kante and the former Napoli man has struggled in recent times, with opposition managers beginning to target him.

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At Wembley on Saturday Jorginho struggled badly against Spurs duo Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, with Murphy claiming that switching Kante back to his preferred role would have helped Chelsea from becoming overrun in defence.

”Maurizio Sarri has rightly earned a lot of plaudits this season but I was surprised that he didn’t make a change at half-time when it was clear Spurs were dominating,” Murphy wrote in the Daily Mail.

”Personally, I felt N’Golo Kante should have been moved back to a more orthodox holding role at the interval in place of Jorginho and allowed Ross Barkley to come on.

”Alli was a bit too sharp for Jorginho with and without the ball. He kept running off him and I get the feeling in away games against the big clubs, you need Kante in there to help protect the Chelsea defence.”

Murphy also added that Jorginho, or Manchester United’s Fred, wouldn’t get in the Spurs side.

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