Former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit has claimed that the big mistake manager Maurizio Sarri made at the club was bringing in midfielder Jorginho.
The Italian’s arrival from Sarri’s old team Napoli last summer precipitated a change in role for a player widely regarded as one of the best in the world at his position: N’Golo Kante.
Guillit believes that was an error: “I think the first mistake he made was Jorginho, to bring him in,” he told beIN SPORTS. “You had already the best holding midfielder, Kante – world champion.
“Now he wants to play them both. Kante’s not scoring goals for you. So he has a huge problem in midfield and he has a huge problem at the back as well.”
Time for Chelsea to sack Maurizio Sarri? @GullitR has his say!#beINUCL #CFC ? HD11 pic.twitter.com/0qq5spUBL3
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) February 19, 2019
OPINION
It’s hard to argue with Gullit, here. Perhaps signing Jorginho in and of itself wasn’t a big mistake, but it’s the way Sarri has used him and his determination to stick with a system that clearly isn’t working that has damaged the Blues. Jorginho doesn’t have the defensive nous to cut it in the Premier League as the sole holding midfielder, he needs someone alongside him. If Sarri would just move away from his precious 4-3-3 then he would see that a 4-2-3-1 with Kante sitting alongside him would bring the best out of Jorginho, as it did for Danny Drinkwater during Leicester City’s unfathomable title win. However, it doesn’t seem as if Sarri is ever going to do that. So maybe the mistake wasn’t bringing Jorginho in, but his misuse of both him and Kante. The Frenchman is an unbelievable holding midfielder and that’s where he belongs, not this more advanced role he’s operated in this term. His playing there has damaged himself, Sarri and Jorginho.