Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel praises Jorginho and says the pressure he felt when playing with the Azzurri was underestimated.
The former Napoli star has scored nine goals in 41 appearances this season and could start in tonight’s Premier League clash against Arsenal.
“He played injured, sacrificed himself for the team [earlier this season] and I think you see it now,” Tuchel said at a press conference as quoted by Football London.
“You can never underestimate how much pressure was on him to play for the national team, the country, for Italy. The demand is high after big success like winning the European Championships. I think he really felt the pressure there, everybody in Italy felt it. This is normal.”
Jorginho has scored all his nine Chelsea goals from the spot this term but has fluffed the last three penalty kicks taken with the Azzurri. The 29-year-old missed one during the penalty shootout in the Euro 2020 Final against England and two more in two games against Switzerland during the World Cup qualification group.
Jorginho sees his Chelsea contract expire in June 2023 and has been linked with a return to Italy. Juventus seem interested in securing his services and have already opened talks with the player’s entourage. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian Regista has demanded a €7m-a-year salary to move to Turin in the summer.
Thomas Tuchel tells Romelu Lukaku what he must do to save his Chelsea career amid new challenge 👀 #CFChttps://t.co/BU6okVYXgj
— football.london (@Football_LDN) April 19, 2022
If he can’t handle the pressure he should stay home, there will be less pressure on him there.
funny how italian blame jorginho for failed to qualified. yes he missed the penalty but its not his job to score the goals. italian forward is a joke. insigne, immobile, chiesa, berrardi, belotti, all of them is must be blamed more than jorginho. they failed to even score single goals with more than 30 shoot on goals againts macedonia. its really a joke.
all of them play bad including jorginho but the forward failed to scored is really the one who need to be blamed. mancini need give chance for scammaca or raspadori.
@Fabio Paratici oh please give me a break. Yeah it’s a problem that the forwards have been goal shy, but you can absolutely blame Jorginho. If he scored even just one of the two penalties he missed, Italy are in the World Cup. He literally had room for error statistically speaking. Absolutely his fault.
if he cannot stand the heat, then he must get the hell out of the kitchen!!!
The ballerina only missed to cruel penalty shots against the Swiss. Oh yes, he also missed his penalty shot in the Euro. Jorginho is a big reason of why Italy is not at the world cup!