One of Pep Guardiola’s analysts has publicly explained the Chelsea weak link Man City exploited
Manchester City video analyst, Carles Planchart, has revealed how they exploited a weakness in Jorginho’s game to help them toward a 2-0 victory in the Community Shield.
Pep Guardiola’s side overcome Chelsea in English football’s curtain raiser at Wembley in August and during the recent Congress of Performance Analysis in Madrid, it was suggested that City seeked to exploit Jorginho ‘jumping’ from his deep-lying midfield position, leaving space behind him.
Have City exposed Jorginho’s biggest flaw? Five key things to know…
- Man City beat Chelsea 2-0 in the Community Shield at the start of this season.
- One of City’s top summer targets, Jorginho, was in the Chelsea line-up that day.
- City’s video analyst, Carles Planchart, highlighted the Italian’s habit of ‘jumping’ out of position at a recent Congress of Performance Analysis.
- The Citizens exploited this for their opening goal, taking Jorginho out of the game with just one vertical pass.
- Guardiola was full of praise for Jorginho’s press, though, following February’s League Cup final meeting between City and Chelsea.
City took advantage of this for their opening goal, with Jorginho’s aggresively high positioning allowing Aymeric Laporte to bypass the entire Chelsea midfield with just one vertical pass, giving the likes of Berardo Silva, Phil Foden and Aguero a free run at Maurizio Sarri’s defence.
Aquà la explicación de viva voz…. pic.twitter.com/12lPWISC6r
— Orlando Sosa (@Orlix77) 5 April 2019
City were heavily linked with Jorginho during last summer’s transfer window, with the Italian reportedly topping Guardiola’s list of targets.
However, the Catalan insisted he wasn’t disappointed to miss out on Jorginho, claiming it would have been a ‘mistake’ to sign a player who wished to be elsewhere.
“No, I’m not disappointed,” Guardiola told reporters of missing out on the ex-Napoli man.
“We tried, but at the end all my advice for the players is that they have to go where they want to go.
“For the guy, it would have been a mistake for him and for us if he had decided to come here when he wanted to go with Maurizio and Chelsea.”
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Guardiola highlights Jorginho improvement
City may have taken advantage of Jorginho’s weaknesses at the beginning of the season, but Guardiola was quick to praise the midfielder after February’s League Cup final, in which the Premier League champions beat Chelsea on penalties.
The ex-Barcelona manager was glowing in his praise of the way Jorginho and N’Golo Kante pressed, potentially highlighting an improvement in the way Chelsea’s midfield is now stepping up.
“It was a tight game, we knew it would be as a final. One of the toughest teams I have ever faced in my time. How Jorginho and Kante pressed was incredible. It is not easy to fight them,” Guardiola said after the game.
“I was impressed with the way Chelsea defended, they were well organised and one of the toughest teams I’ve faced in my career.”
