Should Chelsea fans expect more from their big money signings?
Of all the summer signings to the Premier League, there haven’t been too many that have really shone from the outset.
Alisson has certainly proven to be an invaluable addition at Liverpool, while the likes of Lucas Torreira is becoming a key player at Arsenal and Felipe Anderson has impressed since arriving at West Ham.
There are more that have made a positive start at their new clubs, but for every player that meets or surpasses expectations following big money moves, there are always those that struggle to do so.
Chelsea were among the clubs to spend big in the summer, albeit only signing four players. Of said arrivals, Rob Green arrived on a free and Mateo Kovacic signed on loan from Real Madrid. An outlay of over £120m went towards the acquisitions of Kepa Arrizabalaga and Jorginho.
It may seem a strange time to say it following a sensational victory over champions Manchester City, but both have flown somewhat underwhelming under the radar.
The former smashed the world record transfer fee spent on a keeper but his performances have surprisingly escaped any real scrutiny. That’s not to say the Spaniard has had a poor start to life in the capital, but unlike the aforementioned Alisson, Kepa hasn’t really been singled out for praise or criticism, which in this day and age tends to come with the territory of costing £72m.
The reason is because there hasn’t really been anything of great note to praise or criticise. A goalkeeper can only save the shots on target that they face, of course, but the case remains that the 24-year-old hasn’t really shown the heroics of a number of his counterparts this season.
A save success rate of 71.2 per cent is respectable enough, but ranks seventh of keepers to make three or more appearances this season, while fellow summer signings Alisson (85.7 per cent) and Bernd Leno (75 per cent) rank first and second respectively. When just considering the big chances that he has faced, a 40 per cent success rate from those on target is again some way off the best in the league.
The positive is that Kept hasn’t committed a single error leading to a goal this season, while the likes of Alisson, Leno, De Gea and Pickford all have. He’s been a safe pair of hands in many ways, but it’s fair to say Chelsea fans are still waiting to see something spectacular.
The same could be said of Jorginho in truth thus far. While it’s true that the Italian is pivotal to Maurizio Sarri’s gameplan, he’s yet to have the influence he did under his coach at Napoli.
It’s also been suggested that the insistence on deploying the 26-year-old in the position that earned him a £50m price tag has hindered the influence of N’Golo Kante. That’s another matter entirely, and one with some justification, but wouldn’t be such an issue if Jorginho’s comparative inadequacies.
The two offer an entirely different interpretation to the holding midfield role, with Kante an effortless and indefatigable ball winner, while Jorginho is tasked with starving the opposition of possession rather than reclaiming it. In that sense the summer signing has done his job, completing an excellent 90.9 per cent of 90.7 passes per game, but he’s yet to really play the same volume of incisive, vertical passes that were so crucial to Napoli’s fast and free-flowing football.
There’s a real sense that Jorginho, whose objective is to retain possession and circulate it quickly, is being a little too safe this season, which is born out in the numbers. In his last two seasons in which Napoli put up a fight for the Serie A title, the percentage of Jorginho’s passes forward was 36.3, while that has dropped to just 31.5 in England thus far, which is a significant recession.
Meanwhile, his average key passes per 90 minutes figure has dropped below one (0.8) for the first time in his top-flight career and is at best half what he managed in his three seasons under Sarri at Napoli. The physicality of the English game has been problematic at times too, having been dribbled (1.6) past more often than he has made tackles (1.5) per 90 minutes. Meanwhile, he is also being dispossessed more often, though an average of 0.9 times per 90 minutes isn’t too much of a concern considering how much Jorginho sees of the ball.
The case remains that after a solid start, helping Chelsea to five consecutive league wins to start the season, neither of the Blues’ expensive additions have hit the heights one might have expected. Sarri’s side have taken 11 matches to earn their last five league wins by comparison, so they will need more from their new signings - Kovacic included - if they are to build on a fantastic result at the weekend.
It’s far, far too early to suggest that either player won’t go on to justify their price tag, but both have plenty of room for improvement before they do so.
