28th September 2019 – Chelsea beat Brighton 2-0 in what is Frank Lampard’s first win at home in the PL as Chelsea Manager. The chief architect of the match? Jorge Luiz Frello Filho aka Jorginho. “He is a leader in his personality,” stated an elated Lampard at the post match conference. Lampard even claimed that the young players should be looking up to Jorginho. “I’m pleased with him (Jorginho) and young players need to look up to that attitude he has daily,” he mentioned.
4th October 2019 – Jorginho is officially made the vice-captain of Chelsea FC. Just a week after Lampard had publicly praised Jorginho emphasising his leadership qualities, he goes on to make him the assistant to Cesar Azpilicueta. Speaking at a press conference he said, “Jorginho, I keep talking about him as a character, and he’s a driver. I think it’s very evident to see on the pitch. So that’s the situation as it stands.”
“He crosses the borders, if there are any. It’s easy to come in and stay within your groups and nationalities, and Jorginho doesn’t. He’s a driver, on and off the pitch,” he added.
Now honestly, when was the last time the dressing room had a personality like him? Terry? Or maybe Cahill? Even Azpilicueta hasn’t fully convinced this fan base that he is a captain material. It wasn’t long ago that the fanbase wanted Jorginho to be made the captain.
Fast forward to March 2020 – A part of the Chelsea fanbase wants Jorginho to be sold since highly talented 18 year old Billy Gilmour has won back to back Man of the Match awards replacing Jorginho in the starting line up. A bit to Reactionary?
This is only the tip of the iceberg. The fanbase has an unusual fetish for the academy starlets (I’m no exception) and pretty much everyone is a generational talent in their opinion. However, I for one, am yet to see one in a blue shirt. Also, the same fan base has this unusual habit of looking down upon a “non-academy player,” if they sense there exists a talented academy player knocking on the door. Cahill, Azpilicueta, Kante, Giroud have been prey and the latest on the list is Jorginho.
Jorginho’s relationship with the Chelsea fans has been a fickle one. He was booed and slandered for majority of last season before he won over the fans with his sheer dedication and hard work. The man became a fan favourite in a dramatic turn of events.
The Italian midfielder, brought in by Sarri last season, was one of the key players in Chelsea winning the Europa League and finishing 3rd last season. And when Sarri left Stamford Bridge to take the highly reputed job at Juventus, many felt Jorginho’s time was up. Jorginho had played majority of his football under Sarri and a move to Juventus would have made sense given how badly Sarri needed him to implement his style of football but Jorginho thought otherwise. He wanted the new challenge under Lampard and it seemed the perfect opportunity for the tag of “Sarri’s son” to be killed off once and for all.
When Lampard took over at Chelsea, the mutual admiration between him and Jorginho was there for everyone to see. While Lampard admitted his desire to work with Jorginho and praised his leadership qualities, Jorginho, on the other hand had utmost respect for the legend that Lampard was and he seemingly was excited to work with him as well.
Sarri and Lampard are two different managers with different philosophies and tactics. However, one thing that neither of them compromise on is possession. Both the managers prefer to play with the ball and encourage their players to use as much of the ball as possible. Now, Jorginho is no alien to possession based football. However, the tactical change is something that he has struggled to adapt to but unsurprisingly, the hard work to become an integral part of this team has been there from day 1. He is no longer a Regista – a position that he had made his own under Sarri. Under Lampard he is more of a conventional DM who gets to see more of the ball and plays relatively higher up the pitch. Mind you, it’s the first time he is doing so in his career, and like many of the current Chelsea players, Jorginho is simply experiencing something that is relatively new to him.
Jorginho is one of many players who become an easy target for people obsessed with numbers, however, if the Twitter experts went deep searching, then they would understand that he isn’t as bad as they term him to be. In fact, he is relatively better than some of his counter-parts.
Jorginho vs Fabinho vs Rodri vs Ndidi
Now let us look at some of the numbers stacked up by the DMs of the current top 4 teams in the PL and see where Jorginho stands compared to them.
One argument that’s always put against him is that he is obsessed with risk free and meaningless backward passes. However, this season his backward passes account to 205 while City’s Rodri has 191, Ndidi with 147 and Fabinho with 145. Jorginho (26 matches) and Rodri (26 matches) have played more number of matches than Fabinho (20 matches) and Ndidi (23 matches). In fact, Chelsea’s Mason Mount has played more backward passes (209) than Jorginho this season.
Interestingly, he accounts for most passes in the final third, passes into the penalty area and even through balls compared to the other three.
Passes into the final third
| Player | Team | Matches | Passes into final third |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 190 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 181 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 101 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 87 |
Passes into penalty area
| Player | Team | Matches | Passes into penalty area |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 29 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 16 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 11 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 2 |
Key passes
| Player | Team | Matches | Key passes |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 27 |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 22 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 15 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 8 |
Through balls
| Player | Team | Matches | Through balls |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 4 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 4 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 1 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 0 |
Numbers don’t lie. This is an output of his hard work to integrate himself into Lampard’s system. This is what Jorginho meant when he said he had an advanced role under Lampard. So, the fans’ assumption of what Lampard NEEDS is totally different from what Lampard actually WANTS. It is pretty evident that he prefers a DM who doesn’t shy away from attacking and that’s exactly what Jorginho is trying to be.
This is what Jorginho said back in September, “In the position I was in (under Sarri), it was important for me to maintain that balance in the team’s performance. Whereas now I can leave my post a little more, look to get forward, move closer to the opposition goal.”
Let’s look at the defensive side of Jorginho’s game comparatively.
Fouls committed
The one argument that has often gone against Jorginho this season is, he is committing too many fouls. However, people fail to understand that it’s the result of him not yet being accustomed to his
new role. The case might be logical but some of the other DMs in his role in the top 4 have committed more fouls than him.
| Player | Team | Matches | Fouls committed |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 34 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 34 |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 25 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 23 |
Having said that, he is good in terms of drawing fouls though
| Player | Team | Matches | Fouls drawn |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 28 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 24 |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 16 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 14 |
Tackles
| Player | Team | Matches | Tackles |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 56 |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 38 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 38 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 35 |
Interceptions
| Player | Team | Matches | Interceptions |
| Ndidi | Leicester City | 23 | 65 |
| Jorginho | Chelsea | 26 | 55 |
| Fabinho | Liverpool | 20 | 25 |
| Rodri | Manchester City | 26 | 24 |
So the numbers don’t do justice to the people who claim Jorginho is a poor player and is adding no value to this team. He has done very well under Lampard so far and is only going to get better. If anything, Jorginho is only playing the way Lampard has asked him to, so it’s unfair to criticise him.
The reason why Jorginho is no longer a player of Sarri’s system is because the roles he has had to perform under the two managers are totally different. The regista under Sarri is no longer to be seen and hence he is learning his trade in the role of DM. He is making more tackles, interceptions and playing a lot higher up the pitch than ever. Comparing his stats from last season and this season will help in understanding the argument better.
Defensive stats : 2018/19 vs 2019/20
Attacking returns : 2018/19 vs 2019/20
Under Lampard he has been encouraged to move forward a lot. This is a new role for Jorgi, however, he seems to be ready for the task and is doing exactly what he has been asked.
Passing stats : 2018/19 vs 2019/20
He is no longer the “pass merchant” as some term him to be and is looking to add more meaning to his passes than ever before. He is attempting more long balls and that’s a sign that Lampard has asked him to attack more than ever before. And he is clearly following the instructions.
This is what he said to the Chelsea website way back in October, “This season we are playing more with the long balls and with more runs, less short passes. so we changed a little bit but the mentality is the same, we press the other team and try to have control of the match.”
As already said, he is playing a more advanced role under Lampard, making more passes forward and into key areas, has cut down his backward and sideways passes and is defending more than ever. His doing all these for the first time and there are bound to be games where he might struggle. However, the fans need to remain patient with him just like with some of the younger players in the team. Also, the players in his roles in the league are not providing a better attacking threat than him and the ones defensively better aren’t far off from him.
But are the fans really patient enough to witness the end product ?
If you think Mount, Tammy and Tomori require patience then so does Jorginho. He may not have age on his side and the argument here is not regarding age at all, it’s about adapting to a new style of football. The rules can’t be bent to favour players, surely not if it means seeing a world class player move out (an argument for another day.)
Jorginho, like the majority of the players in the first team, is adapting to life under Lampard. His new role isn’t an easy one to perform in and despite the fact that Stamford Bridge has witnessed some elite, different styled players in that role, not many would have some of the attributes that Jorginho possesses.
He is a smart footballer who reads the game very well and is always one step ahead of the opposition. Exceptional at intercepting and good with picking up the second balls, his leadership skills are an inspiration for the young lads and Frank has admired that a lot saying it’s something this team needs badly. Surely, the team that has been accused of lack of motivation clearly needs players like these I suppose.
Having said all this, if you still think Gilmour has well and truly taken Jorginho’s spot then,
don’t cry for Pedro and Willian to be dropped when Pulisic and CHO are fit,
don’t cry for Zouma or Rudiger to be dropped when Christensen is fit/ready,
don’t cry for Barkley to be dropped when RLC or Kovacic is fit,
don’t cry for Giroud to be dropped when Tammy is fit
Because according to your narrative, the ones out of the team have to earn their season long hard worked spot back just because the current players have performed well in a couple of matches (to be specific, the last 2 matches). As good as the current team is, the players who are out are a major part of Lampard’s plans, especially Jorginho. Why else do you think he was given a major responsibility of being the vice captain of this club ? It may be a tough pill to swallow but it certainly is a fact.
He may be in a bad run of form, like any normal player, but to write him off completely would be so naive. Lampard and the club needs players like him especially when a rebuild is in progress. Gilmour is definitely the future but he certainly needs someone like Jorginho to guide him in the present. In fact, Gilmour and Jorginho could even start together in this team because clearly they are two different types of players. Also, a team like Chelsea needs big players in every position and Jorginho, without any doubt, is a big player. Don’t let the football twitter to distract your mind from the real action that’s on field.
Lampard is building a team for the future and whether one likes it or not, you need experienced players to build the foundation for it. The younger players are important but the senior players are the architects and someone like Jorginho can play a huge part in this process. The attitude, passion, desire and dedication of the Italian is something the young players should look up to and learn. And obviously, he is definitely one of the world class players without a doubt. Stamford Bridge needs Jorginho and his character, don’t let the “Twitter pundits” tell you otherwise.
Stats via : Whoscored.com, Premierleague.com, Squawka.com and RBRef.com
By Shyam.