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After the gloom of last season, Chelsea were badly in need of a dose of positivity.
Enter Maurizio Sarri and "fun" football. Enter transfer window excitement. Enter Jorginho.
The former Napoli midfielder is a big, beaming smile with the body of a footballer attached to it. He hasn’t stopped smiling since day one. So when he scored his first Premier League goal on Saturday, the only thing that changed is that his smile became an even bigger smile!
When you score on your @PremierLeague debut! #HUDCHE pic.twitter.com/9N9n6uZzER
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 11, 2018
Jorginho's goal came from the penalty spot, taken in rather unique style that we saw once in preseason as well.
We’ve seen the Frank Lampard or David Luiz method of bashing it into a corner many times (which seems to be the most sure-fire). We’ve seen the Hazard style of not even looking at the ball while sauntering up until the goalkeeper commits. And then there's Jorginho's style of ... well, whatever this is.
Late in the half, after some smooth interplay between Jorginho and Barkley, the latter's flick finds Alonso who is fouled in the box and Jorginho steps up to cooly convert the penalty. 2-0. #CFC pic.twitter.com/wgd8CLrLam
— Chelsea GIFs (@ChelseaGIFs) August 11, 2018
According to his coach of old and new, this isn’t a new thing.
“I don’t know, he has always kicked the penalty like today.”
-Maurizio Sarri; Source: football.london
It's certainly unique, almost like an evolution of the classic "paradinha" where the shooter would stop suddenly to send the goalkeeper one way or the other. Here's Ronaldo showing how it's done, in a classic example.
Since that style was deemed illegal after a while, the modern paradinha needs to incorporate continuous movement while still throwing off the timing of the goalkeeper. By changing the approach speed, Jorginho's little hop serves the same purpose as the old stutter step, while also disguising the shape of the shot. Done correctly, it's probably unstoppable as it involves no guesswork on the shooter's part. For his part, Jorginho's has missed just once in 11 tries so far.
Jorginho's penalty record across all competitions:
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) August 11, 2018
☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️✖️☑️
If you didn't know... now you know. ❄️ pic.twitter.com/LkLKqjnQMO
As an added bonus, it's confusing more than just the opposition goalkeeper. Here Huddersfield striker Steve Mounié, mind blown.
"It was weird.
“He jumped before the penalty and Ben (Hamer) had already dived, so I don’t know why the ref didn’t make him retake the penalty.
“It was a little bit weird. The ref needs to explain that to us because I don’t understand why (it was not retaken).
-Steve Mounié; source: Huddersfield Examiner
HA-HA!
If it doesn’t have a nickname already, then it needs one. Bring on your suggestions, otherwise we're assigning "hippity-hoppity". And let's be honest, no one wants that.