Who does Edson Alvarez replace in this Chelsea side?

It’s now established that Alvarez is the most similar to Jorginho, however he won’t replace Jorginho the way many think he would or the way many want him to. Alvarez would likely come in when Jorginho is being rested or when the west Londoners comes up against a team that Thomas Tuchel expects the Blues to struggle against in and out possession, as he’s very good at winning the ball back. He may also be brought in occasionally to shut down games and secure wins, much like how Jose Mourinho used John Obi Mikel sometimes.

Make no mistake, Jorginho is still key to how the Blues plays and he’s superb at what he does. There aren’t many players that can do it as well as he does, however Chelsea is currently in need of depth at central midfield, especially sitters.

CFC doesn’t have many midfielders who can sit in a pivot and just win the ball back, press, help the team play out from the back and watch play from deep. They have N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Conor Gallagher, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who are all either box-to-box midfielders, or attack-minded central midfielders, in fact Jorginho is the only one currently at the club who can do what he does to the level he does it at for Chelsea. This is why the Blues needs Alvarez.