‘I want to be known as Chelsea Jorginho, not as Sarri Jorginho’

Jorge Luiz Frello Filho, a.k.a. Jorginho — or as the unfortunate spelling error on the back of his shirt said last night, Jorghino — continues to make solid strides in changing his own narrative, and showing that he can not only function outside of Maurizio Sarri’s system, but actually provide telling contributions on and off the ball.

As he told Esporte Interativo’s Fred Caldeira after the 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the Super Cup last night, he’s working hard to be recognized for who he is, rather than who he was the last four years.

Helpfully translated by @dumidrexel on Twitter, Jorginho backs himself in this endeavor thanks to the hard work he’s putting in on the training ground, which is something that Frank Lampard pointed out earlier this summer as well.

“I was a little sad seeing people thinking I arrived here only because of the coach [Sarri]. I arrived here because of my hard work, my day to day work, my sacrifices.

“It’s a challenge for me to show the fans that thanks to my work it’s why I got here. I want to take this opportunity to have a good season and also for my name to be recognized by Jorginho who plays for Chelsea, not Jorginho who only works with Sarri.”

-Jorginho; source: Esporte Interativo via @dumidrexel

Jorginho, who laughed off the spelling error on the back of his shirt, made it a personal goal back in the spring to convince Chelsea fans of his own qualities. Having put in his best performances in a Chelsea shirt in the Europa League final last season as well as the Super Cup last night, he’s indeed showing that those intentions weren’t just talk.

That’s not to say he’s going to be confused with Cesc Fàbregas (passing range) or N’Golo Kanté (everything) or even Mateo Kovačić anytime soon, but his efforts should not go unrecognized. Sitting at the base of the three-man midfield yesterday, he still lead all Chelsea players in touches (110, eight more than Kanté’s 102). but he also collected his fair share of tackles, interceptions, and perhaps more tellingly, whatever WhoScored defines as long passes. (And also in penalties converted with daring cool.)

The Kanté-Jorginho-Kovačić trio is Chelsea’s strongest midfield on paper, and yesterday, in action as well. Long may that continue (and then possibly get even better when Loftus-Cheek returns from injury in a few months).