Date: 17th August 2019 at 6:36am
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After the humiliating defeat to Manchester United on the opening day of their season, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard made a few minor tweaks for the test of Liverpool on Wednesday night in the UEFA Super Cup.

The team looked so much better so it is probably something the Blues manager will consider going forward – they face Leicester City on Sunday as they look for their first Premier League points of the season.

Lampard also faces a dilemma after a number of his players played the whole 120 minutes as Liverpool took Chelsea to penalties in a game that the Blues could have easily won themselves.

The biggest decision he faces is whether or not to risk his star man from Wednesday night, N’Golo Kante, who pretty much made Chelsea look a completely different side – one you’d worry about facing this season and that’s something you definitely wouldn’t have said following Sunday’s drubbing.

Kante has only just returned from injury, in fact, those were his first full minutes on the pitch since the Europa League final when he actually played on that very injury – though he did feature for the final 17 minutes against United but the game was already long gone.

It’s a risk Lampard is going to have to take if he wants to succeed in getting all three points against a very good Leicester side.

The 28-year-old simply makes everything tick in midfield and is often the key link between defence and attack.

On Wednesday night, Kante recorded nine dribbles, more than anyone on the pitch whilst being second in the Chelsea side for key passes with four in the game.

He also won two aerial duels, even though he’s just 5 foot 6 and further managed two interceptions and one clearance – in short, he gets everywhere on the pitch and had he been fit enough for the United game then it may have been a much different end result.

But can Lampard play him on Sunday after 120 straight minutes of competitive action? He missed all of pre-season with injury and even had a concern going into the game on Wednesday… it may well be a risk he needs to take as Kante’s performance only showed how badly they need his energy and impressive box-to-box attributes to make this system work.

 

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