Chelsea: Jorginho and Andrea Pirlo comparisons right for wrong reasons

Some have taken to comparing Jorginho to the legend Andrea Pirlo. The comparison is not off among Chelsea fans, but not for the reasons many believe.

Jorginho is a good midfielder. He is tidy with his passing and perhaps more important than that he is always available. He has the confidence to direct others his senior and his read of the game is one of the best in the squad. But he is not a great midfielder, at least not yet. There still seems to be another level he can reach that just has not shown up consistently as of yet.

More than anyone, Jorginho is a victim of the “Maurizio Sarri did nothing wrong!” crowd. He cannot merely be good; he must be either perfect or terrible. There is no middle ground on the discourse surrounding him no matter how appropriate.

Lately, the former group has begun to compare Jorginho to the legend that is Andrea Pirlo. And while that is a lot like saying a player is the Lionel Messi, it is not an entirely baseless claim. It is a correct comparison for other reasons tied to the same argument.

It is perhaps best to start with the statistical anomalies surround Jorginho thus far this season. Per WhoScored, Jorginho leads in interceptions and is the joint leader in fouls committed and times dribbled past per game. Of players who have made a block, he is tied with Cesar Azpilicueta for the least. Of players with a key pass recorded, he has the least in the team. He is bottom in regards to dribbles per game while also being the joint least dispossessed player with Azpilicueta (among players who have been dispossessed). He shares the least amount of unnecessary touches with Kepa Arrizabalaga and is second only to the keeper in long balls. He of course is very high in amount of passes per game and passing numbers but does not lead in either category.

All of that paints a picture of a very unique type of player. He can clearly read the game well enough but he is dribbled past often when his interceptions or fouls fail. And while he is passing a ton and even has long balls in his arsenal, the lack of key passes is telling. Even if that “is not his job” as the kids these days say, statistically he almost would have had to luck into more than a few.

But the stats also show that yes, his spot in the midfield is more or less the best place for him. Without the key passing, there is little reason to play him higher up the pitch. No tackles but high interceptions implies he can sweep things up, but he struggles when having to lift the full defensive load himself. And that is where the Pirlo comparisons come back.

First of all, in case it needed saying, Jorginho is not Pirlo by a long shot. He has none of the set piece specialty of the Italian legend and he lacks the Hollywood passes the midfielder possessed. But those two things aside, they are very similar players and they also have similar faults.

Pirlo, much like Jorginho, had periods of his career where he was an enigma and never seemed to fit anywhere at all. Eventually, Pirlo was moved deeper in the midfield and shielded by two hard working midfielders either side. Antonio Conte took that a step further and added a spare centerback behind him.

Chelsea has already tried the former approach to Jorginho. N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic flanked the Italian for much of last season. But that puts Kovacic somewhat out of his comfort zone and under Frank Lampard, it leaves the center backs exposed.

In recent weeks, as Lampard’s tactics have settled, he has taken a somewhat Jose Mourinho like lopsidedness to his setup. Azpilicueta is no longer being asked to push forward constantly, instead remaining somewhat closer to the backline. Further up the field, one winger is a true winger and the other is more of an inside forward to overload the center. This gives the overall shape a somewhat 3-5-2 or 3-6-1 look at times on attack. And while Mourinho and now Lampard use it in certain situations, Conte went all in on the shape when he had Pirlo at Juventus.

Lampard’s job is to get the best out of Jorginho and the rest of the midfielders. He has managed to squeeze more out of the Italian but the defensive issues still remain as do the stats pointing towards him being best where he is. But if the lopsided approach does not work, then perhaps Lampard can dip into another former Chelsea manager’s playbook and shield Jorginho even more like Conte once did for Pirlo at Juventus.

That extra body to cover for when Jorginho is surpassed might be just what is needed to take the Italian from good to great. Maybe then the Pirlo comparisons can be made not for their similarity of style and their limitations, but because Jorginho is truly living up to the legend’s name.