Player Focus: Jorginho the Conductor of Sarri's Napoli Orchestra

As Christmas approaches in Serie A, Napoli are top of the tree. Unbeaten in 18 games in all competitions, it’s the first time they have been in this position at this stage of a season for quarter of a century. Not even Diego Maradona’s Scudetto-winning vintages in `86-87 and `89-90 had as many points as they do now after 14 Matchdays in Serie A.  

Gonzalo Higuain and Pepe Reina obviously stole all the headlines after Monday night’s edge-of-your-seat 2-1 win against Inter at the San Paolo that has got a city daring to dream and Napoli have the balance - from front to back - to end a long wait for a third league title. Their defence, the vastest improvement under Maurizio Sarri, is the stingiest in the league, while their attack has also gone to another level. Higuain and Lorenzo Insigne are in the form of the careers.  

What sometimes gets lost, however, in a discussion as to why Napoli, after years of threatening to, now finally are serious contenders, is the in-between. Their midfield has been an unsung hero of this team. With the exception of Allan, a summer signing from Udinese and one of the best acquisitions in Serie A this season, Sarri has again been working with what he found on his arrival in Castelvolturno.  

He has seen what was obvious to everyone apart from Rafa Benitez; that captain Marek Hamsik isn’t a No.10 and is much more effective with the play in front of him rather than with his back to goal. And he has found Jorginho down the back of the sofa.  

Make-do-and-mend is leitmotif of Sarri’s management style. It comes from an entire career of working in the lower divisions where if a player wasn’t very good, you couldn’t go out and buy a replacement willy-nilly. You simply had to make him better through coaching. “The transfer market,” he said in the summer, “is everybody’s refuge.” It offers them an excuse to give up on players too easily.  

Napoli looked like they had lost interest in Jorginho. A decision had to be made at the end of last season on whether to make his co-ownership deal permanent or let Verona take him back to the Bentegodi. Napoli were signing Mirko Valdifiori, one of the revelations in Serie A last season, an Italy international and the player most associated with Sarri’s philosophy at Empoli.  

Jorginho didn’t seem to have a future at the club, but then in stepped his new coach. “I’ve been following him for years,” he said, “I could never understand why he wasn’t getting into the team [under Benitez].” I wrote about the hype around Jorginho on these pages back in 2013. He was 21 and the architect in a Verona team that had just returned to Serie A for the first time in 12 years. He allowed them to keep the ball, got their passing game going, gave a tempo to their play and showed composure in the final third. 

Juventus thought of him as a deputy for Andrea Pirlo, but Napoli beat the competition for his signature when they swooped in the winter of 2013. He seemed to be the perfect signing for them. But things didn’t work out. Like Pirlo, and here’s where the comparisons should probably end, Jorginho gives his best when he has midfield teammates either side. Benitez instead played him in a 4-2-3-1 and he didn’t look comfortable. Rather than change system, Benitez doggedly stuck by it.  

Sarri isn’t so stubborn. After Napoli made their slowest start to a season since 2000, he abandoned the 4-3-1-2 that had served him so well at Empoli and played 4-3-3, a move people have been crying out for these past couple of years. Valdifiori was dropped. He unexpectedly got no preferential treatment from his guru. Those who thought of him as a sacred cow were wrong. Jorginho was promoted in his place and upon finally getting a chance to play in the role he excelled at in Verona, lo and behold he started to do so at Napoli too.  

No one expected it to unfold this way. Valdifiori lost his place because, even with a coach he knew, he had yet to settle. He had new teammates with whom to develop an understanding. At Empoli he could play passes in his sleep. He knew all their runs. At Napoli he instead looked unsure of himself and that slowed everything down. Jorginho instead guaranteed more energy and zip to their passing.  

The fluency of Napoli’s play owes much to him. Everything goes through Jorginho. He personifies their one-at maximum-two-touch style. The ball is always on the go and Napoli’s players constantly on the move. Against former club Verona, Jorginho touched the ball 212 times - once every 24.2 seconds - the most in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season, which means more than any Bayern or Barcelona player. He completed 182 of 195 passes, both of which figures are now the gold standard on the continent in completion and attempts.  

Jorginho has featured four times in a top 10 leaderboard for touches in a single game in Serie A, and holds the No.1 (218 vs Verona) and No.2 (173 vs Palermo) places. Since breaking into the starting XI against Lazio in Matchday 4, he has, unsurprisingly, made the most touches (1298 - 289 more than any other player), attempted (1125 - 338 more than any other player) and completed the most passes in Serie A (1022 - 308 more than any other player). In that time, only Fiorentina’s Borja Valero (303) has completed more in the final third (251).  

He is the conductor of Napoli’s orchestra. Now in possession of an Italian passport, don’t be at all surprised if Jorginho is in the Italy squad for Euro 2016.

How important can Jorginho be in Napoli's quest for the Serie A title? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below