Chelsea legend Joe Cole has questioned if Jorginho should be playing in the Champions League final against Manchester City after his poor showing in yesterday’s defeat to Leicester at Wembley.
The Italy international has holes in his game, according to Cole, and he’s unsure if he has what it takes to properly play that defensive midfield role against the kind of players City have in their team.
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Jorginho didn’t work quite hard enough to block the shot from Youri Tielemans that led to the winning goal in the FA Cup final.
Despite being good on the ball, Jorginho perhaps doesn’t have the energy or work rate to track back well in those situations, and that could make him a weak link against even stronger opponents.
Cole raised doubts about Jorginho’s role ahead of the Champions League final, while fellow pundit Rio Ferdinand was also critical of his poor play on the Tielemans goal.
“There are holes in this games and that’s one of them,” Cole said on BT Sport, as quoted by the Metro.
“He knew he didn’t have the legs to get there, so he’s trying to dictate to people around him.
“There will always be frailties. I’m not worried about in the week when he gave the ball away [for Arsenal’s goal] because that’s very rare, but that happens a lot in his game.
“I think now Thomas Tuchel when he’s thinking about the Champions League final, you can’t leave Phil Foden or Riyad Mahrez in that situation, you’ve got to get out there.
“I don’t want to take anything away from the strike, but from a Chelsea performance and a defensive perspective, if you’re playing that role, first and foremost before anything you do with the ball you’ve got to stop that from happening, and he didn’t do that tonight.
“Tuchel’s got a big decision, not only Tuesday night [against Leicester] but in the Champions League final. Jorginho’s a fabulous player on the ball but there are holes in his game.”
On Jorginho’s role in the goal, Ferdinand added: “This is one area I don’t like in his game is that he can’t get across the ground.
“He should be the one getting across there [to stop Tielemans]. He shouldn’t be pointing at a defender to get out [to Tielemans], if Thiago [Silva] goes there he leaves the space and [Jamie] Vardy’s in.”