Sarri defends Jorginho – and blames other players

Maurizio Sarri defended Jorginho after Chelsea scraped a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves.

Jorginho, who played under Sarri at Napoli and is very much regarded as the Blues head coach’s flagship signing, once again came in for criticism from fans.

There were loud cheers when he was substituted during the second half at Stamford Bridge.

But Sarri insisted Jorginho was affected by a lack of movement from other players – including talisman Eden Hazard, whose injury-time equaliser rescued a point.

Sarri argued that the problem was Chelsea’s tendency to take too many touches and that they need to move the ball quicker.

He said: “Jorginho, if the other players do not move without the ball, is in trouble, because he is really very able to play with one touch.

“Of course if you want to play with one touch you need movements with the other players.

“I know him very well. He can go in trouble if all the rest of the team is not moving.

“We needed to move faster and needed more movement without the ball.

“Today we played with five touches and if there is no space it is very difficult to score if you play with five or six touches.

“We need to improve in this kind of situation. We can’t keep taking five or six touches.

“Hazard is a great player, he can solve this situation, but during the match was like the other players. He needs more movement without the ball.”

Nevertheless, Sarri felt Chelsea deserved to win the game and said he was confident they will secure a top-four finish this season.

He added: “We made a lot of mistakes but we deserved to win.

“We were unlucky because we conceded a goal in the first situation inside our box – the first and the last in all the 90 minutes.

“We were unlucky on that, but on the other hand we need to improve in attack against teams who defend with 11 players. We must move the ball faster.”

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