Former West Ham United defender Anton Ferdinand believes Mohamadou Kante can be a big player for the club going forward.
Kante put in a strong performance as West Ham United beat Brentford in the FA Cup on Monday night and rarely looked out of place against what was almost a first-choice midfield for the high-flying Bees.
Kante has just given Nuno something to think about! 🇫🇷
What did you make of his performance?
Indeed, Kante impressed for West Ham against Brentford, having previously struggled away at Burton in an earlier round of the world’s oldest cup competition.
Ferdinand impressed by Kante vs Brentford
Reacting to the 20-year-old’s performance on social media platform X, an excited Ferdinand wrote: “The boy is a player, dynamic going forward and running back. A great size and good on the ball like all young players will need time but what a player we have!”
In another post, he said: “We have another very good young player in our hands.”
Vent your frustrations here 👇 Every club has a scapegoat 😂
The Frenchman has been one of the stars of the West Ham academy this season, so it was brilliant for the supporters to see him translate that into a first team game.
Progress in young players is not linear, of course, so it would be unwise to place too much pressure upon his shoulders.
Still, people at West Ham are very excited about Kante, and he certainly showed why on Monday night.
Kante’s stats vs Brentford in full
As per WhoScored, not a single player on the pitch made more tackles than Kante on Monday night (4).
He also made two clearances, completed one dribble and drew one foul.
On the ball, the former Paris FC midfielder found the mark with 76% of his 25 attempted passes.
It was a strong showing from a player who did find the rough and tumble of the Burton match earlier this year reasonably difficult to deal with.
The West Ham midfield is a difficult thing to break into right now given the excellence of both Mateus Fernandes and Tomas Soucek, so it’s hard to see Kante getting many chances in the Premier League during what remains of the campaign.
Going forward, however, it will be fascinating to see what becomes of him clad in claret and blue.
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