Maurizio Sarri believes Saturday’s game against Newcastle underlined why Chelsea need to sign a replacement for Cesc Fabegas.
Jorginho, who has attracted some criticism since his summer move to Stamford Bridge, gave the ball away repeatedly as Chelsea stumbled to a 2-1 win.
And head coach Sarri admitted that he would have taken him off and replaced him with Fabregas had the Spaniard been an option.
Fabregas recently completed a move to Monaco and Sarri is therefore keen to make a signing during this month’s transfer window.
Jorginho previously played at Napoli under Sarri and is key to how the Blues boss wants the team to play.
But his struggle to adapt to the pace of the Premier League was evident at the weekend.
“After 20 minutes he lost a lot of balls. It’s unusual and I think he was in trouble,” Sarri said.
“Maybe he was tired, I don’t know. But if Fabregas was on the bench I think that in the second half he would have been on the pitch instead of Jorginho.”
Ethan Ampadu can operate in midfield as well as at centre-back – and Sarri has suggested the youngster could be an option sooner rather than later.
“In the future, maybe. Playing as a central midfielder in our team is not easy,” Sarri said.
“We need to try and try and try in training. But I think he is able to do it.”
This post was last modified on 14/01/2019