Record Breaking Stats For Jorginho Hide Chelsea's Lack Of Cutting Edge

Record Breaking Stats For Jorginho Hide Chelsea's Lack Of Cutting Edge
13:55, 24 Sep 2018

Chelsea's inability to break down West Ham United on Sunday was overshadowed by a stunning stat about their midfielder Jorginho.

The former Napoli man, who was linked with Manchester City for much of the summer before joining his old boss Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea, clocked up a historic feat in the 0-0 stalemate.

He made more passes than anyone in the history of the Opta Premier League stats which started in 2003 which on paper looks like something you'd circle with a red Sharpie on your CV. But some have argued that the stat masks the fact that Chelsea don't have a cutting edge in the final third. Someone on Twitter stated that Jorginho was "just as flashy Jordan Henderson" and lacked the range of pass in his game to be considered one of Europe's best midfielders.

But before we bogged down in the negatives, let's celebrate the Brazilian midfielder's achievement. He clocked up 180 attempted passes in 90 minutes. The previous high was set by Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City - he attempted 174 passes against Chelsea in March. Impressive stuff 

West Ham were content to give Jorginho the freedom of the London Stadium and concentrated their efforts on limiting space for Eden Hazard. As a result, Jorginho found himself with the ball at his feet an awful lot but his attacking outlets were severely limited. Seventy four of his passes were played into the final third out of a total of 124 forward passes. So who do we praise here? West Ham for being organised or Jorginho for having so much of the ball. Maybe this is a case of the stats not telling the whole story.

x
Suggested Searches:
The Sportsman
Manchester United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Premier League
Sportsman HQ
72-76 Cross St
Manchester M2 4JG
We will not ask you to provide any personal information when using The Sportsman website. You may see advertisement banners on the site, and if you choose to visit those websites, you will accept the terms and conditions and privacy policy applicable to those websites. The link below directs you to our Group Privacy Policy, and our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

All original material is Copyright © 2019 by The Sportsman Communications Ltd.
Other material is copyright their respective owners.