Chelsea could turn Jorginho into a productive No. 10 once Maurizio Sarri leaves

Chelsea will have no need for a “regista” or anything to do with a rigid 4-3-3 once Maurizio Sarri leaves, but they will still have Jorginho. Turning him into a No. 10 could make him more productive than he ever was under his patron.

Maurizio Sarri’s utopian idea of Chelsea playing in his image has failed to take off, even after eight months on the job. If anything, Chelsea have gone from sometimes suffering without the ball to almost always suffering with the ball. With the natives getting restless and repeatedly asking Sarriball to go forth and multiply, Sarri is on thin ice.

Jorginho, the Italian procured at great expense for Sarri, is supposed to be the key cog in the Sarrismo machine. But so far, he has been nothing more than a defective Mikel Jon Obi clone, one with permanent neck pain rendering him unable to survey his surroundings before releasing the ball. Deployed at the base of the midfield, this stiff-necked playmaking is akin to shooting oneself in the foot with a shotgun and admiring the accuracy of the shot.

Members of the cult of Sarrismo will point out Jorginho’s pass completion statistics, which are usually in the high 80s or 90s. But those statistics fail to show how Jorginho’s one-touch passing puts the receiving player under enormous pressure. This inevitably leads to a turnover and a counterattack, which one would expect the deepest midfielder to break up.

Alas, breaking up a Premier League counterattack is not the same as elegantly putting a foot in to intercept a Serie A counter while puffing a cigar. And because of that, once again, Chelsea suffers without the ball.

The odds on Jorginho ending up on the Italian loan circuit will be tempting when Sarri is shown the door. But that does not have to be the case. A manager not obsessed with a “my way or the highway” approach to football could still wring something out of Jorginho. But that would almost certainly involve moving the Italian as far away from Chelsea’s goal as possible.

His one-touch passing and tunnel-vision for the most obvious, most straightforward passes would be best utilized as – wait for it – a No. 10. Call it madness, or call it revolutionary. They are one and the same, mostly.

Chelsea should simply move Jorginho further up the pitch where he could be a dollar store Cesc Fabregas instead of a knock-off Mikel in his current position. His passing would be better suited to strikers making runs behind the opposing defence, instead of a midfielder receiving the ball with his back to goal. The forwards could also interplay with Jorginho, allowing the Italian to get closer to goal and maybe score a few himself.

With his ability to navigate tight spaces and still pass the ball to a teammate, Jorginho could become a regular name on the assists charts too.

Are there any downsides to this? There are none, unless you’re wedded to the belief
Jorginho is nil nisi regista.

But that is even crazier than this barnstorming idea.

Of course, all of this is contingent on the premise Sarri will not see out his contract and the new manager will not discard Jorginho as an Italian Danny Drinkwater immediately, the way Sarri dismissed the English Danny Drinkwater. But if the new man in the dugout is open to adapting his tactics, as any sane man would be, playing Jorginho as a No. 10 should be at the top of his ‘To Do’ list.

It won’t matter if he watched Napoli last season or whether he even understands what a regista is, once the goals and assists start flowing.