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Football London
Football London
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Daniel Childs

Evolution of the Jorginho Chelsea penalty as Eden Hazard Premier League feat surpassed

The Jorginho penalty has become a recognisable trademark of Chelsea since the Italian midfielder made his move from Napoli in the summer of 2018.

The hop, skip and jump has also become a gimmick of its own, linked with the now 30-year-old who has been Chelsea's primary penalty taker since the departure of Eden Hazard in 2019.

His latest, a right-footed strike at Goodison Park to seal the Blues' first win at Everton since 2017, was the 59th of his career. In relation to the aforementioned Hazard, that goal, his 18th penalty scored, meant he passed the Belgian's Premier League tally of 17 from the spot. Sadly though, reaching Frank Lampard is going to take something freakish with the club icon ending with 41.

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Jorginho has scored 20 goals in England's top flight, 90% of them being penalties, the highest percentage of any player with at least 10 goals in the competition via Opta.

"'Throughout the week, I work on my penalties, and I look at what the opposition goalkeeper does, which way he tends to dive and what he might do in that moment to try and save the shot." The midfielder told Chelsea's official website in a brief interview focusing on the psychology of a penalty.

When pressed on his latest against Pickford, there was history given he had missed against the Everton man in the Euro 2020 final shoot-out, using his famed run-up. "Of course, you think about it [Euro 2020 final miss]. What the keeper may do in that moment, I was thinking about it a lot. It was the right decision. For me, it is 75% all in the head. I thought a lot, and it went well." He told Sky Sports after full-time.

Out of the 59 taken, Jorginho's decision-making is pretty varied. Favouring the left slightly more than the right, 27 to 24, only going down the middle eight times since his very first for Hellas Verona nine years ago.

The evolution of his style came full circle on Saturday evening, taking an approach against Pickford that was almost identical in the run-up, strike and placement to what he did against Torino to level the game.

Jorginho's latest penalty vs. Everton favoured a normal run-up and low strike into the left corner, sending Jordan Pickford the wrong way. (Wyscout)
His very first penalty for Hellas Verona back in 2013, a straight run-up and right-footed strike into the left corner (Wyscout)

The hop and skip did not arrive until he arrived in Naples, and it was birthed in a Champions League qualifier versus Nice at home. Here we see the action that would become customary for the midfielder in the upcoming years.

The first time Jorginho used the hop and skip for Napoli in the Champions League against Nice (Wyscout)
His first for Chelsea against Huddersfield in August of 2018 showcased how he'd mastered this technique since its first use a year earlier (Wyscout)

The slow dance around the ball before pacing up, stopping, hopping into the air and connecting with the ball. Most of the time bamboozling the keeper as the ball rolled past him.

Despite scoring his first four for Chelsea, a costly miss against Ederson in the Carabao Cup final shootout proved critics right over the flaw in his unorthodox approach. If a keeper held their nerve, stood still and waited for the ball to be kicked, Jorginho's effort could be made to look pretty tame.

But little changed about Jorginho's general approach till January of 2021. Following another miss against Bernd Leno of Arsenal, we'd see the Italian ditch the hop for a straight run and smash against Spurs in a 1-0 win. This came very early into Thomas Tuchel's reign and showed a variation that would pop up more over the next year.

Jorginho changed his run-up and strike against Hugo Lloris in January of 2021, finding the back of the net after a few misses (Wyscout)

It was by the end of the 2020/21 season that Jorginho had taken and scored the most penalties in a single season of his career. 15, including international duty with Italy and the European Championships, where he scored the winning kick against Spain but missed against England. At Chelsea, he ended as the top scorer in the Premier League with seven, eight in all competitions.

The notoriety of his technique has naturally made keepers savvier to it in the past year, notably with Yan Sommer besting Jorginho twice in World Cup qualifying last autumn. The first miss saw Jorginho try his usual technique, but Sommer guessed the right way and saved comfortably. The second still remains the only time in his career Jorginho has wildly blasted an effort over the bar.

Jorginho missed two penalties against Switzerland goalkeeper Yan Sommer last year, blasting the second over the bar which proved costly for Italy (Wyscout)

Jorginho has varied his technique and placement sometimes within the same game when asked to take two penalties. Against Malmo for Chelsea last October, his first was a more traditional run-up and firmly hit into the top left corner, whilst the other in the second half had the hop and skip, as the ball calmly was placed down the middle.

Jorginho's approach for his two penalties against Malmo last year were different in run-up and direction (Wyscout)
His second going straight down the middle, which he has only done eight times in his career since 2013 (Wyscout)

Jorginho has tended to show a willingness to change his style, most following a miss. Another example followed after a terrible effort at home to West Ham in April of this year that Lukasz Fabianski easily held late in the game, under a month later, in the FA Cup final shootout against Liverpool, when he had to score, he ensured he made a good connection, the ball aggressively hit into the bottom right-hand corner.

We have seen his original approach return for August of 2022, wherever this evolution goes next, Jorginho has undeniably been a worthy successor from the spot following Frank Lampard and Eden Hazard.

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