Sarri blamed Chelsea players for under-par performances from the Blues’ lynchpin, Jorginho.
Since the beginning of 2019 things don’t seem to be going on the right direction for Chelsea. At first there was a downfall to Chelsea’s Sarri-ball play. An unstoppable Jorginho and Chelsea were suddenly facing embarrassing defeats. Jorginho who displaced Kante wasn’t able to defend and prevent his side from conceding goals. The results brought more and more anger to Chelsea fans. The poor performance of Jorginho brought irk to Chelsea fans who questioned the physicality of the Italian. Maurizio Sarri finally reveals the reason why Jorginho is performing poorly.
Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri says the midfielder needs his team-mates to develop their “understanding” of the manager’s preferred style. The Italy international joined former Napoli boss Sarri at the Premier League club on a five-year deal last summer. But as Sarri has so far struggled to impose his methods in England, so Jorginho is yet to live up to the £57m fee that brought him from Serie A. A difficult few months at Stamford Bridge has seen Jorginho face criticism for his performances, with some pundits questioning if the midfielder is cut out for the Premier League. Chelsea bounced back from defeat in the Carabao Cup final with a 2-0 win over bitter rivals Arsenal and travel to Fulham on Sunday.
Sarri signed Jorginho from Napoli because the Italy international was familiar with his coaching demands and says Chelsea fans will not see the best of him until his team-mates are up to speed. ‘Jorginho has a very strong character, a very strong personality,’ Sarri said. ‘So I can believe that he has no problem to play under pressure. I think that he played very well in the last match, better in the second half than in the first half. So, for him, it’s very important to finish the match in that way. I think that he can do better. But he needs all the team to understand very well our way of football.’
Jorginho was booed by Chelsea fans when going on as a substitute in the recent win over Malmo and missed a penalty in the Carabao Cup final shootout loss to Manchester City. But Sarri expects the 27-year-old to improve as the team learn “our way of football”. Jorginho impressed in his early days at Chelsea as Sarri went unbeaten in his first 12 games as manager. But Chelsea now sit five points off four place in the Premier League and need to beat relegation battlers Fulham to keep pace with Manchester United and Arsenal. Chelsea responded to a turbulent period by beating London rivals Tottenham in their last match to ease some of the pressure on Sarri.
Author’s Take:
To see the best out of Chelsea and Jorginho under Sarri, everyone needs to give time to them. Sarri-ball should be given time. The Italian was wanted by Pep Guardiola and was sucessful in Serie A, so one needs to give time to the Italian.
