Thomas Tuchel heaped praise onto ‘very strategic’ and ‘relentless’ Jorginho ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League clash with Arsenal.
Tuchel is a big admirer of the midfielder, who has just enjoyed the best season of his career.
Jorginho, 29, won the Champions League with his club before winning Euro 2020 with Italy and he has been named as one of three nominees for UEFA Men’s Player of the Year.
He will compete with Chelsea team-mate N’Golo Kante and Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne for that gong and his manager is delighted that his contribution to the team has been acknowledged on the global stage.
And he offered a detailed analysis of how vital Jorginho is to his Chelsea team – who kicked off this season with a European Super Cup win over Villarreal – and praised the Italy international’s character.
‘I think Jorgi is a very strategic player,’ Tuchel said in his pre-match press conference.
‘He can play in advance, knows what to do in ball possession, can imagine what is going to happen in one or two passes ahead.
‘He knows where to help out in short distances and long distances, when to switch the play, when not to switch the play. He has a good sense of rhythm.
‘He lacks, if you isolate him or watch him separately, the pure physical ability that makes him the number one candidate to be a number six in the Premier League.
‘But once you have him in a structure, he is very well organised in his game, he organises all the environment around him, which helps him then, when everything is organised, and then he can show his true abilities in controlling the rhythm of a game.
‘He is relentless on defence. He wants to be everywhere on the pitch, he has a huge ability to run a lot. Maybe he lacks the high speeds, but he compensated with a lot of work rate and with very good anticipation in his defensive work.
‘On top of all of that, he’s a top guy. He is funny, he has a big smile on his face every single day. You can have chats with him, you can laugh every single day with him, because he’s up for a laugh, up for a good life.
‘He’s in love with this game and this is the feeling he transports in the first minute and he never stops transmitting this energy that he’s really into the game and thinking about tactics and loves to be involved and feel a true connection with the game and such a positive guy.
‘That makes him a very, very important player and a huge link in the middle of the pitch, not only for us but also for Italy.
‘I’m very happy that guys like him, like [N’Golo] Kante and [Kevin] De Bruyne – and this will have a huge effect on guys like Mateo Kovacic – that people understand the importance of these characters and what they do.
‘That sometimes they don’t shine, but they make other people shine and this is also important for any team in the world.’
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