Many have suggested various solutions to the “Jorginho problem” at Chelsea. This is frankly the only way Maurizio Sarri knows how to use him.
Everything good and bad about Chelsea right now can be traced back to Jorginho. He is the keystone around which Maurizio Sarri has built Sarrismo. If the keystone fails, the entire system struggles.
At Napoli, Sarri very much built the squad around the Italian and the players around him and the league he was in allowed the set up to work.
But things are different at Chelsea. There are many solutions as to what to do with Jorginho and the squad as a whole right now. But this may be the only way Sarri knows how to use Jorginho because it is the only way that has truly worked.
Jorginho only became a known name under Sarri. Rafael Benitez may be a bit of a laughing stock to some, but it is hard to deny he is a manager who more or less knows what he is doing. He saw little to no way to incorporate Jorginho. Only Sarri did when he put Napoli into a 4-3-3.
Sarri uses Jorginho in much the same way that Antonio Conte used Andrea Pirlo at Juventus. Both had their playmakers sit in the middle of the formation surrounded by two hardworking box to box midfielders. Both know / knew that the playmakers themselves were not strong enough defensively to hold the line. So both required two effective midfielders on either side.
On paper, Chelsea has that. N’Golo Kante is the world’s best pressing midfielder and, though his numbers are down, he is more than capable of buying other players time. Mateo Kovacic is a solid midfielder as well. But this is where Conte’s Juventus, Sarri’s Napoli, and Sarri’s Chelsea diverge.
Conte had midfielders in Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal who could get in between lines and score goals. At Napoli, Sarri had Marek Hamsik who could do the same. But the perfect solution to that does not exist at Chelsea.
For whatever reason, Kovacic rarely if ever gets in between the lines. Strangely, Kante does but often in an area too wide to be effective. This could be a reason why Eden Hazard so frequently comes central and deep.
On paper, Ross Barkley or Ruben Loftus-Cheek would provide the solution to that. But to have the playmaker central and deep like Jorginho means the flanking midfielders must be defensively solid. Few would say that about either Englishman, though they have improved.
This leads many to suggest the 4-2-3-1 formation to put Kante where he would be effective while keeping Jorginho where he is needed. But more likely than not, this will just shift some problems around while creating new ones.
Sarri is very much a zonal defense manager. In a zonal defense, the area Jorginho must cover is relatively small and it is overlapped by Kante’s and Kovacic’s zones. Assuming Sarri would keep zonal defense if he did opt to go 4-2-3-1, the responsibility would suddenly shift heavily.
Jorginho would have to cover a much larger zone. Kante would, too, which is less of a concern. That would require the players around Jorginho (the centerback, the fullback, and the winger) to be much more conservative to help shield Jorginho when the zone is bypassed. Overall, that would hinder Sarrismo, not protect it.
Furthermore, a 4-2-3-1 would require the band of three to frequently get back in mass. Sarri has already tried to do that somewhat with Hazard and Willian, but the area they must track back into in a 4-3-3 is smaller than that of a 4-2-3-1. The effect would be they would have to come deeper more often which would keep the team too shallow for Sarrismo.
And unless Kante and Jorginho frequently swap sides, Jorginho would be put farther away from where he should be to be effective. Part of why Jorginho worked at Napoli was because he could get the ball centrally and then play it into the halfspace. If he has to be in the pivot, it would be risky to have him central, so more often than not he would start plays from the halfspace. That alone would create issues as the halfspace is where Chelsea wants the play to end, not start.
In addition, a 4-2-3-1 would require a very, very good “10” who knows exactly where to be and can press and get back when needed. Currently, Chelsea probably does not have that. Playing Ross Barkley or Ruben Loftus-Cheek there would likely look a lot like the current 4-3-3 where the defense suffers for their presence. Hazard would be much better at it offensively, but defensively he would only add to the liability.
And the simple solution of merely swapping Kante and Jorginho in a 4-3-3? Well, that probably would not work either. Think back to Conte’s 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 in his early Chelsea days. It faced two issues not unlike those that Chelsea face now. The first is that it lacks a midfielder capable of advancing the play between the lines. The second is that one side of the midfield will be weaker than the other and ripe for attack.
So all things considered, there is only one way to use Jorginho right now and this is it. This current situation is the only way Sarri knows how to use Jorginho without cutting corners elsewhere. Jorginho is Sarri’s keystone that he needs to build around. If he does not, then Jorginho becomes more of a luxury player than a key figure.
Where does that leave Sarri? Basically in need of a very good midfielder who can do what Marek Hamsik did for Napoli or Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal did for Conte at Juventus. It is perfectly allowable to have a playmaker in the center of all things, but the players flanking him need to be strong defensively and offensively. Chelsea only really has one or the other, though there is hope Loftus-Cheek could be groomed into the needed player.
Barring that, only the market can fix the issue and bring Chelsea into balance.