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Former Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle has slammed the Blues' interim manager Frank Lampard for playing N’Golo Kante out of position in the defeat to Arsenal this week.
Chelsea lost 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, May 2. Martin Odegaard scored a brace before Gabriel Jesus made it 3-0 in the first half. While Noni Madueke pulled one back for the away side, his strike proved to be a mere consolation.
Hoodle, who managed Chelsea for three years, has slammed Lampard for using Kante in an attacking midfield role against the Gunners. Speaking to Premier League Productions, he said:
“For me, the midfield I don’t get Kante playing in that position going from there. 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.”
He added:
“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.”
“The lads are confused, there’s no clarity” - Glen Hoodle on Chelsea's performances
The defeat to Arsenal was Chelsea's sixth consecutive loss in all competitions and 14th in the league this season.
Glen Hoodle, who made 36 appearances for the Blues as a player, believes the club's players currently have no idea what they’re doing due to a lack of 'communication off the pitch'. He opined:
“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. 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. I don’t see that happening at Chelsea, not at this moment in time."
Addressing the west London outfit's performance against the Gunners, he continued:
"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.”
