Jorginho
Image from: freelargeimages.com
Jorge Luiz Frello Filho (Jorginho)
Current Club: Chelsea.
Previous Clubs: Napoli, Hellas Verona.
Loan Clubs: Sambonifacese.
International: Italy 16 caps 1 goal.
Trophies Won: Italian Cup 2013/14. Italian Super Cup 2014/15. Europa League 2018/19.
Jorginho is a midfielder who divides opinion massively, in large part down to the way he has been used, as a deep-lying holding midfielder with no support alongside him. That exposes his weaknesses defensively, while failing to use his attributes to their best, as he is too deep to really use his passing range to its fullest extent.
His lack of mobility is not really a problem in the role he plays, sitting deep in front of the defence, if he only had a better understanding of his positioning defensively. Jorginho is very easily bypassed by an attack, especially when on his own as he tries too hard to get to the ball, rather than taking up the correct position and forcing the opposition to do something to get by.
On the one hand, you cannot fault him for lacking effort, he is always trying to close down and block off attacks, but he lacks understanding of when to just drop off into a position to shut off a pass. Surprising for one who is a decent passer himself that he lacks that reading of the game to see when to block a passing lane and when to press the ball itself.
Get Jorginho on the ball and he is a decent passer with good vision, though he will usually pick the simple, quick pass to just keep the ball moving, he is capable of picking the more penetrating pass. Though it is made more difficult from his deeper position, as any ball into the danger area is having to travel a long way, giving defenders time to get into position.
His rashness and reckless nature can be an issue at times as well, there are far too many times that he gives the referee a decision to make with regards to if he should receive a red card. Those times it tends to be wild, uncalled for tackles that come from nowhere, rather than a build of frustration that can be anticipated and so manager and team-mates do not get the chance to calm him down.
That is why, in my opinion, Jorginho is suffering badly through being misused. His strengths are not being used to the full, as he is too deep to really provide defence-splitting passes and his weaknesses are being exposed by being left to handle attackers on his own. Yes being deeper allows him, most of the time, to get on the ball more often, but to what effect?
It is great for possession statistics, but not so good for chance creation, which, to my mind, is much more important. Most importantly of all, he should be part of a midfield duo, with someone alongside him to provide the legs in the way Gennaro Gattuso did for so many years for Andrea Pirlo or, the more obvious example as N'Golo Kante is there at Chelsea, the way Kante did for Danny Drinkwater in Leicester City's title-winning season.
Jorginho has been used to win the possession-statistic battle in the hope it would win the match. It has done him no favours at all and left him as someone who will continue to divide opinion as to his usefulness through no fault of his own.
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