Ahead of our Champions League tie against Juventus, Jorginho has been discussing the prospect of facing several of his international team-mates in Turin and how we can break down the Italian club’s formidable defence.
The Chelsea midfielder was a key part of the Italy side which triumphed at Euro 2020 over the summer, but will now be on the opposing team from many of the players he featured alongside during that tournament, with Juventus counting Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Manuel Locatelli, Federico Chiesa and Federico Bernardeschi among their squad.
With the veteran duo of Chiellini and Bonucci to call upon, in addition to Dutch international Matthijs De Ligt, Juve’s defence will likely pose a particularly difficult challenge for the Blues when we face them in Turin tomorrow evening.
Speaking to the media ahead of our Champions League group game with Juventus, Jorginho gave his view on how we can come out on top against those two Italy centre-backs and one of the world’s toughest defences in general.
‘Obviously, tactically they are really strong,’ he said. ‘They know how to defend their box because they are very organised, Juventus is a big club and they’ve been there for many years.
‘We need to try to break them with speed, energy, and we know it’s going to be difficult. We respect them, but we’re going there to win.’
The matches are starting to come thick and fast as the Champions League and Carabao Cup add to our regular Premier League commitments in an increasingly busy schedule, and Jorginho admitted the heavy workload, combined with his exertions at Euro 2020 over the summer, are not ideal for the players, but it is a challenge they are used to overcoming.
‘We had loads of games, a lot, and everyone at some point, of course, we can feel all those games because there is no time to train, there is no time to rest. But we need to push, we need to play. We just try to keep pushing, to work hard. But, of course, it’s very difficult with all these games we have in a short period of time.’
Jorginho also reflected on Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat to Manchester City, our first loss of the season in all competitions, identifying where the problems were and where we can do better the next time we come up against a similar challenge.
‘Maybe we were a bit passive, from everyone, and we need to accept that,’ he explained. ‘They were pressing very well and they did a great job, so we need to learn from that and try to make it better next time.
‘Maybe we didn’t have the best choice trying to escape the pressure. The pressure was very high and they were pressing very well. We couldn’t find the space between the lines, when we were trying to get out of the press, and maybe we were running a lot behind the ball and then we couldn’t think that much to get out of that pressure.’