Jorginho’s mother in tears after seeing Arsenal shirt hanging in dressing room

The former Chelsea man is living with his new club Arsenal and his mum couldn’t contain her emotions upon seeing his new club shirt.

Jorginho was Maurizio Sarri’s most in-demand signing when he was appointed Chelsea manager in July 2018. The Italian stressed the importance of beating Manchester City and Pep Guardiola – and his then assistant Mikel Arteta. Jorginho has long had some very high-placed admirers and three years later Arteta, who appears to have been pushing City to sign the Italy international, finally has his man. Arteta, now Arsenal manager, brought Jorginho to the Emirates in a £12m deal.

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His signing marks a – albeit isolated – break from Arteta’s favored policy of signing young players he can develop into the player he wants. However, Jorginho brings a wealth of experience to an otherwise young squad and another fantastic option in central midfield. Here we take a detailed look at his game and what exactly he brings to Arsenal, who are currently top of the table and hope Jorginho can help them win the Premier League title this season.

Tactical analysis of Jorginho
Jorginho is a ball-playing central midfielder who is best suited as a main point for his team’s possession. He controls the pace of play from deep, linking defense to midfield and midfield to attack, and moving laterally across the pitch to make short passes where possible. He can play as a single pivot in a three or as part of a double pivot. When playing alongside a midfield partner, Jorginho is most comfortable in a position on the right side of central midfield. Here he picks up on the half-turn and tries to play diagonal passes forward, either to a runner on the right – the full-back or winger – or swing sideways to the left.

He has the awareness, vision and passing ability to break lines, and he’s also particularly good at throwing balls from deep behind the back to slam a teammate. With so much play flowing through him, the vast majority of his passes are sideways. and much of his most important job is simply moving the ball downfield to take an opponent out of position in his team’s defensive structure. Through his constant sweeping, he builds a picture of everything going on around him, then is extremely adept at spotting gaps and making the most of them. Whenever possible, he will make his first forward touch to move the game forward, then play a forward pass when an opportunity arises.

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He almost always collects the ball in front of the opposing midfield and rarely creates chances, so assists are extremely rare. Instead, he takes responsibility for receiving the ball, absorbing the pressure, and then moving it. He provides security in possession and acts as a point that allows his team to recycle possession before changing points of attack.

When it comes to passing, he usually targets the run of an outside player, who can then play the ball over the goal wall (above). These passes are surprising and extremely difficult to execute, but Jorginho understands the timing of these balls perfectly, notices his teammate’s run and recognizes the perfect moment to make his pass. His preference for this type of pass means that he will play the pass fairly regularly for the assist rather than providing many assists himself. He is a very useful player in possession despite not receiving many assists, but still a player with his hitting ability should probably score more goals immediately than him.

A big strength of him is the ability to take penalties. He uses the goalkeeper-dependent method, choosing to wait for his opponent to make a decision before calmly pushing the ball across the goal (below). He has an impressive penalty success rate, although his technique is risky – when he misses it looks particularly bad and draws extra criticism.

When his team are out of possession, Jorginho takes a position in front of the defense and passes shields into attacking midfielders or opposing forwards. He shows a good understanding of where best to position himself and has good anticipation, making plenty of interceptions as a result. He works hard to ensure there is no space for the opposition to play in, constantly communicating with his midfield partner to keep a short distance between them and stopping passes in the middle of the pitch .

He is proactive on defensive transitions, willing and always ready to counter-press quickly or hide behind an advanced teammate. A weakness in his game is that he sometimes gets caught when anopponent isolates him in a one-on-one situation due to his lack of speed or agility. When playing as a sole pivot, he can sometimes struggle to cover enough ground to adequately protect his defense in the wide areas on either side.