Why the criticism towards Jorginho is unjustified

Jorginho has only been involved in one goal for Chelsea this season despite playing in 25 games for the London club. This has made many football fans and some pundits to suggest that he might not be good enough for the premier league.

While it might be a fair assessment to judge the 27-year old based on his goal contributions, there are other reasons that suggest that the midfielder is not having a stinker in his first season in the premier league but is rather doing what is expected of him.

It's safe to say that Chelsea fans expected a lot more than a solitary penalty goal in over 20 games from the Italian midfielder but they should also keep in mind that Jorginho's role in the blues midfield has not been breaking the lines or making runs into the opposition box to score goals. The Italian has been deployed as a deeper midfielder who spends most of his time in that hole in front of the back four.

Jorginho's role

Jorginho's main work is to dictate the tempo of the play.

Jorginho is a deeper midfielder whose main work in the midfield three is not to shield the back four but to keep the play ticking and maintain the fluidity of the play. This role has been given the name; 'Regista', an Italian name for a deep-lying midfielder whose strength lies on their ball playing abilities rather than their defensive side of the game. In simple terms, a regista is a deep-lying playmaker.

Jorginho's role is simply dictating the tempo of the play. He is the one who directs the play from deep by either increasing the pace of attack, switching the play from one direction to another or simply maintaining possession when there is the need to do that. He is the one expected to provide a quick circulation of possession when the ball is won or turn the defense into attack through his ability to find teammates in advanced areas with his range of passing.

Perhaps this is why a good range of passing has been one of the most important tools to earlier registas. Looking at Chelsea's games this season, it is clear that Jorginho's role has mainly been maintaining possession and moving the ball quickly to advanced areas. He is currently the player who has completed the most passes in the premier league.

Many people confuse the role of a regista to the role of a defensive midfielder. While a defensive midfielder's work is solely based on shielding the back four, the regista's main work is to provide a creative spark from deep or to provide a platform for other creative players to create the play.

Perhaps this is why registas have always been partnered alongside natural destroyers. Andrea Pirlo, one of the greatest exponent of the art was mostly played alongside Rino Gattuso and Clarence Seerdoff in Carlo Ancelotti's Milan while Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio both provided cover to him while he was at Juventus.

Jorginho has so far not shown much of his ability to create the play from deep as he showed while at Napoli, but this might be due to the pace of English football which might have an effect of denying him space and time to execute his ball-playing abilities.

Another thing might be the structure of Chelsea's midfield. Jorginho has mostly played as the deepest of the three midfielders with Kante and Kovacic' playing in more advanced roles. This might have resulted in him not attempting more risky passes as the two other midfielder's focus have shifted towards contributing more in the offense than providing cover to him.

Any loss of possession would, therefore, expose the back four as he is the deeper midfielder. At Napoli, he played alongside Allan whose main work was to provide cover to him and destroy the opposition play.

Sergio Busquets is one of the most underrated players in football.

Jorginho is neither playing poorly nor playing exceptionally well. He is rather doing what he is expected to do in that Chelsea team. As a regista, he will not get the recognition that he deserves simply because he is neither a specialist in breaking up play nor a genius in breaking the lines.

His game relies on his intelligent and tactical awareness rather than his pace and stamina and that is why the English game will not credit his style of play. It took a while for people to acknowledge the work of Sergio Busquets in the Barcelona team while people started acknowledging Xabi Alonso after his move to Bayern.

This also explains why Michael Carrick was one of the most underrated players in Manchester United despite the constant praise that he received from Sir Alex Ferguson and his teammates. The regista is one of the most underrated roles in football.