Chelsea: More thoughts on Jorginho’s notable passes against Newcastle

Two of Jorginho’s 103 passes against Newcastle stood out amongst the rest: a narrow diagonal to Callum Hudson-Odoi and a throughball to Cesar Azpilicueta. These passes highlight how Chelsea and Jorginho are improving under Frank Lampard.

Nate calls attention to Jorginho in a nearby piece, particularly the Brazitalian’s two keenest passes to send a player into the box. On top of all the elements Nate identifies that make those passes so noteworthy, what’s also worth mentioning is that neither were planned or pre-programmed. Chelsea were not executing a circuit or a routine, the next step of which was Jorginho spreading it wide to Callum Hudson-Odoi or narrow and incisively to Cesar Azpilicueta. The moments and the passes leading up to them were probe, probe, probe, probe until Jorginho saw the way through and put Chelsea closer to a chance on goal.

Moreover, Jorginho made these passes to where the players were and where they were already moving – not to where he wanted them to be or “ordered” them to be. It was about them in reality, not him in the playbook (since there is none anymore). For all the pointing and shouting he does in his pantomime leadership, his two most memorable plays of the game came from him being responsive to his teammates. That’s why they call it “providing service,” and why the buzzword in management circles is “servant leadership.”

Now that Chelsea and Jorginho are working under a manager who is steeped in the Premier League’s football culture, we are seeing the first real individual expression from Jorginho. It may be too soon to declare Jorg 2.0, but v1.6 is a notable upgrade (much more so than FIFA 20 is, per my younger colleagues struggling with so much spare time).

Two passes out of 103 is hardly a success rate to paint onto a banner, but it’s much better than his pass-to-assist ratio under Maurizio Sarri.

If Frank Lampard can continue to bring out this new Jorginho, the one who does more than point, shout, pull levers, make one-touch no-look sideways passes and floated chips over the top to where he thinks strikers should be but aren’t, Lampard will have the wonderful professional fulfillment of improving another of his individual players.

And this new approach to his play on the pitch may just give Jorginho the perspective to grow into a leadership role.