The patience of the fans of Chelsea seems to be running out when it comes to the large sum of money signed by Jorginho, who has reached a record number of passes in the Premier League this season, but has no assists.
The Italian arrived from Napoli as the famous playmaker of Maurizio Sarri, although his career at Stamford Bridge has not yet reached the great heights.
Jorginho is a known product almost exclusively thanks to Sarri. No manager before him could find a consistent starting role that worked for Jorginho. But Sarri changed that when he swapped Napoli to a 4-3-3 with Jorginho as the center piece.
The 27-year-old midfielder is a hard player to pin down. Chelsea fans are told that he is vital to the system but he rarely shows up in a standout way on stats. Some see him as Chelsea’s most underrated player while others see him as Chelsea’s most overrated player. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Jorginho is a good player, but he is not a great player.
The biggest stick used to beat Jorginho is his lack of assists and goals. The response to that is generally something along the lines of it “not being his job”. But it is worth noting that even though it is not his job, statically he almost should have fallen into a few goals or assists through the course of the season.
“It’s not Jorginho’s job to score/assist so we basically spent £60m for a player who can only pass backwards and sideways, decent business,” wrote one disgruntled supporter.
Jorginho arrived at Chelsea in a £57million deal from Napoli in the summer. (Source:www.bobongda.net)
Jorginho works for Sarri because his first instinct is almost always a one touch pass. Even when the situation does not call for it Jorginho will hit it first time most of the time. That plays its part in players receiving passes but it also raises another issue: how stiff necked Jorginho is as a playmaker.
The midfielder does do an excellent job of offering himself as a passing option. He also is incredibly eager to move the ball around to shuffle the opposition out of place. Some of the praise he earns is well warranted but often times praise for Jorginho goes to high up the dial compared to what actually happened in the match.