The Chelsea players are out in LA having their preseason, meaning a lot of media availability. From that, Jorginho has a really interesting interview with The Athletic today looking back over the last 12 months, starting with helping Italy win the Euros one year ago yesterday.
That really was the pinnacle of his last year, and after that things went off the rails a little. He missed crucial penalties as Italy missed out on World Cup qualification, and was even dropped by Chelsea for important games in the spring.
The piece notes that he didn’t start the Club World Cup final in February, and was benched for three games in April as Chelsea battled to stop a late season slump after Champions League eliminations.
According to Jorginho, his coach was doing him a favour as he was burned out after so much football in the preceding couple of years.
“I played a lot, so of course, it affected my performances after a certain point. The coach understood that and gave me some rest, and I needed it. I just tried to rest to get back on track to help the team.”
Let’s hope this year’s relatively extended spell off will have helped him get back to his best for what looks like it could be one last year with Chelsea.
