Chelsea’s Jorginho: A peculiar midfielder approaches 100 starts

Chelsea’s Jorginho will reach 100 starts for the club the next time he begins a match. He remains a peculiar midfielder in the system.

It is difficult to know where to start with Jorginho. He was a fine player at Napoli but he did not really explode until Maurizio Sarri arrived and built his system around him. When Sarri joined Chelsea, he brought Jorginho along to build around once again. Then Sarri quit after a season and it became a mystery as to whether Jorginho would follow Sarri or whether he would be able to play the same under Frank Lampard.

If anything, Jorginho played better under Lampard. He was allowed far more freedom to roam higher and wider to assist in possession. At the same time, however, Jorginho remained an awkward fit for Lampard’s tactics.

That is basically the Italian. He is a peculiar midfielder both out of time and perfectly poised for the modern game. He is a player of contradictions. As he approaches his 100th start, nothing is really certain about him or his future. But maybe Chelsea needs a little bit of that uncertainty.

He is a player that is good in possession. One of his best traits is the ability to suck the opponent in and then play the ball into the space conceded. He is often looking for a way to get open and assist in possession. At the same time, however, he very often passes the ball right back to where he got it from. Rarely will you catch Jorginho scanning his surroundings so that when he receives the pass, he can quickly switch the direction of it.

Defensively, his stats are very impressive. He is well aware of his positioning and he tends to be well placed for interceptions and tackles. Of course, the eye test often shows something different. Watch him on defense long enough and one will see how often he commands a teammate to press when he is better positioned to do so. Furthermore, getting caught in behind without the pace to get back is rarely shown on the stat sheet.

At the same time, Jorginho genuinely cares about the club. In the prematch press conference before Sevilla, he was very unbothered by the current competition in the squad. If anything, he was excited about it. He wants what is best for Chelsea.

It is just hard to see how that will coincide with Jorginho. The current 4-3-3 with dual eights is seemingly here to stay and it requires an extremely talented defensive midfielder to sweep, not necessarily to serve as a point of possession. Jorginho could play there still, of course, but the teams he could do so against would be limited. Even if Chelsea returns to a 4-2-3-1, Jorginho needs to be untested for the most part to make the formation work as needed.

Furthermore, a player of his qualities, contradictory as they may be, could be starting at dozens of other clubs that build around him like Sarri’s teams did. Chelsea would lose a good player if he left, even if there are asterisk to his best skills. More importantly, they would lose a player that very much puts the club before himself.

Had Jorginho been born at a different time, he might have been a world class superstar of the game. As he approaches his 100th Chelsea start, it is hard to tell exactly what he is besides a Blue. He may not be perfect, but he will do what he can for his club. That is a trait more valuable than skill.