Glenn Hoddle has criticised Frank Lampard for playing N’Golo Kante out of position in Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday, and in general for “confusing” the Chelsea players.
Chelsea’s horrendous run continued at the Emirates as they fell to their sixth defeat in six under Lampard’s interim stewardship, with Arsenal brushing them aside 3-1.
With his second spell doing irreparable damage to his managerial career, Lampard’s decision to play Kante in an attacking midfield role has baffled Hoddle.
“For me, the midfield I don’t get Kante playing in that position going from there,” Hoddle told Premier League Productions.
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“I see him as one of the best holding players in the world, defensive midfield players in the world still at 32. Do that job. Do what you’re good at and then go and feed people who can go and play in those defensive areas.
“It doesn’t suit him. He can’t go and play on the half turn, he can’t play with his back to play, he can’t score goals from that position. He might come up with one or two from distance playing in a deeper role.
“You’ve got to play the right players in the right position.”
Hoddle also believes the players currently have no idea what they’re doing due to a lack of “communication off the pitch”.
“There’s a hell of a lot of talent in that squad,” Hoddle said.
“Unless you’ve got the foundation, a foundation means a system, the lads at Chelsea are confused, there’s no clarity in the way they’re playing.
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“They’re all disjointed, the different units are disjointed. Looking outside in it’s difficult, but looking with a manager’s head those units needs to communicate with each other, the players, with the manager and the staff.
“You’ve got your strikers, the midfield and defence, that needs to be a team, they need to communicate off the pitch as well as on about how they feel that unit is working.
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“I don’t see that happening at Chelsea, not at this moment in time. And that’s how you get the foundation to a team that’s going to press. We always think about pressing high up the pitch which I think is right, against Arsenal at the moment that would’ve been a good tactic.
“But you can actually drop into different areas and the distance [between players] becomes the same, press hard, really hard as a team collectively from an angle, but as long as you’re pressing together.
“Normally when you get a team to press it’s the third guy who wins the ball or forces the error, there nowhere near that at the moment.”
The post Hoddle Slams Lampard for playing ‘world’s best’ out of position and ‘confusing’ Chelsea with no ‘system’ appeared first on ClubsFootballChampions.
