Thomas Tuchel has defended Jorginho by suggesting the midfielder stick to his technique following his penalty miss against West Ham United. It seemed that the missed opportunity would have left the home side in agony, but that was not the case as Christian Pulisic scored a late winner to give them a 1-0 victory.
When Romelu Lukaku was brought down in the box, it was expected that Jorginho would put away the resulting spot-kick with his peculiar and effective stop-and-jump technique. However, that was not the case, as the midfielder seemingly looked to have botched the kick. However, Tuchel slammed any criticisms that the Italian may have gotten for the miss, and he has given reasons for his belief.
Speaking in the post-match presser (h/t Football.London), the Blues manager has mentioned that the Italian midfielder’s technique has always fared well for them, so it would be very reactionary to attack him for one miss. Tuchel also pointed out Jorginho’s nearly perfect penalty record to back his statement.
“For the penalty, Jorgi has – or had – the perfect record with us. So we all believed we had finally the chance to score the goal we needed. He has a certain style of shooting, and I got the question just before, but when he scores – as he had done at a 100% level – it looks unbelievably cool and calm and composed.”
The 48-year-old has admitted that Jorginho’s penalty looks bad when it is saved. However, Tuchel is adamant that the 30-year-old midfielder should stand his ground and keep doing what he does, as setbacks are simply a part of the game.
“But when he misses, it looks like he could’ve done better. But it’s style, and he is right to stick to it. He is upset with himself and happy that Puli (Christian Pulisic) turned things around.”
Jorginho’s penalty miss does look bad, but we must consider how he entirely depends on technique, placement and waiting for the goalkeeper to make a move. As such, should opposition shot-stoppers hold their noses and wait before taking a decision, such misses can occur in certain cases.
That being said, concerns can be raised against Jorginho’s recent record as the high-profile misses for Italy did play a part in them not qualifying for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Perhaps, Tuchel and his other staff should look into that and see whether there are any problems associated with his recent setbacks.
There can be cases made for and against Jorgi’s technique. His penalty is seemingly more likely to be saved if the goalie jumps in the right direction given he rarely strikes those with power. A crucial part of the Italian slotting his spot-kicks is fooling the goalie into diving the wrong way. But goalkeepers would have carefully researched his tricks by now and hence, the Chelsea star is seemingly having some important penalties saved recently.
However, we remain confident that the Blues ace will bounce back and respond strongly as we near the end of this season. We still have a title left to play for in the form of the FA Cup, which means that we need our stars to be at their best when facing off against Liverpool.
Jorginho is one among them, although we would hope to see him perform more consistently than he has done in recent times. Let’s hope that Tuchel would address the matter with the holding midfielder to make sure of his current mindset following the recent penalty misses.
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