Chelsea have a happy history with lovable heels, along with a record of players who get trapped by their reputation. Jorginho’s excesses of frustration in recent games will make him a target for the oppositions’ provocateurs and referees looking for an excuse to leave the Blues with ten on the pitch.
Diego Costa and John Terry are among the players Chelsea fans love to be hated for loving. Terry’s early career was as much about fears of a dark heart as it was the dark arts, but his maturation into the Captain, Leader, Legend moved him out of his past. Costa, on the other hand, could never fully leave the doghouse. He arrived with a reputation for diving to go with his grim artistry. For a brief spell he earned himself a few benefits of the doubt, but he slid back into his reputation on his way out the door.
Jorginho came to Chelsea with a clean slate for discipline and sportsmanship. The only reputations that followed him from Napoli were his passing statistics and his centrality in Maurizio Sarri’s system.
However, in the last two games he escaped at least four yellow cards (in addition to the two he received) and could easily have been sent off with a straight red in either game.
His flying studs-up scissor-tackle on Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson will be in the November 2018 chapter of “Why the Premier League is adopting VAR too late.” Disbelief that he escaped without a booking is exceeded only by certainty that VAR would have brought him a red card. Some commentators argued he should not have even been on the pitch at that point, having already benefitted from Kevin Friend’s leniency or oversight.
Had Jorginho seen red against Everton, the whole course of history could be different. Well, at least the last 48 hours of our analyses and sidebar conversations.
Mauricio Pochettino’s game plan had as much to do with Jorginho as Maurizio Sarri’s. Dele Alli spent most of the game within arm’s reach of Jorginho, with the Tottenham midfielder breaking contact only when Spurs were fully in possession on offence. Jorginho found no way to escape Dele, nor any way to contribute to Chelsea amidst Dele’s suffocating cover.
Midway through the second half, Jorginho and Dele Alli finally tangled, frustration getting the better of the Chelsea man.
At first glance, Jorginho took a swing at Dele. After watching the review it became clear that Jorginho was awkwardly and abruptly – violently, but without violent intention – shrugging off while pushing away the man who would not leave him alone.
But remember the crucial fact from the Everton game: the Premier League does not yet have video assisted replay. Kevin Friend’s only impression of Jorginho’s tackle on Sigurdsson was that it was not worthy of a red card. Since there is no VAR, that decision stood. Had Saturday’s referee Martin Atkinson had the same impression of Jorginho’s movement towards / against Dele Alli that many viewers did, he could have given Jorginho a straight red card. And like Friend in the Everton game, there would be no review or check on his decision.
Jorginho did not receive any bookings in Chelsea’s first 11 Premier League matches, nor in the two Europa League games he played. Yet here he is accumulating two yellows, evading many others and escaping reds in back-to-back games.
What changed? Fatigue factored into Jorginho’s performance against Everton. He was slow and a bit sloppy throughout. However, the dominant factor was his frustration borne of impotence. Everton’s marking and pressing structure minimized his role to an extent he has not experienced since arriving in England. Tottenham took it even further, and they piled on three goals where Everton could not score one.
The last two games revealed brittleness around Jorginho and his role in the side. Relatively simple marking schemes denied Jorginho his usual place and purpose, and he did not find other ways to contribute, let alone reassert himself over the proceedings. With Jorginho neutralized, Chelsea’s shape, structure and movement fell apart. And, unable to do much more than watch the dire consequences, Jorginho commits dangerously sloppy fouls and lashes out.
This sequences will only encourage Chelsea’s future opponents to focus their attention on Jorginho. Even if they cannot execute Tottenham’s tactics as effectively, they may aim to provoke the Italian into cheap fouls, early bookings or the increasingly inevitable red card.
Other teams will not be the only ones keeping their eyes on him. His actions in the last two games will land Jorginho on the officials’ pre-match preparations. They now know what he is capable of and prone to doing, especially in response to what will be the expected tactics. Officials will watch his action closely, the linesmen will monitor him when he is behind the play and the referee is looking elsewhere. He will have many fewer opportunities to do things that are not seen. And when things are seen by the officials, the benefits of the doubt will no longer go his way.
Perhaps Kevin Friend thought it was a clean tackle and Martin Atkinson assumed he wasn’t swinging at Dele Alli. Set aside the correctness of the call. There’s no VAR. Perception and interpretation matters. They may not think that now, and their colleagues will not think that when it happens again.
The Blues are in enough trouble when they are playing as though they only had 10 men on the pitch. If Jorginho cannot find a productive role to overcome the opposition’s tactics and sublimate his frustrations, he may find himself making the slow walk off, leaving the team truly with only 10 men on the pitch.