No player at Chelsea divides opinion more starkly these days than their captain on the pitch.
It has taken less than two years for Enzo Fernandez to lose the shine of a World Cup triumph and a £106million ($139m) transfer fee in the eyes of many supporters, to the point where his continued presence in Chelsea’s starting XI is becoming a topic of increasingly fierce debate.
The lingering memory of him live streaming what team-mate Wesley Fofana subsequently labelled “uninhibited racism” on Argentina’s team bus after last summer’s Copa America victory does him no favours, but the bulk of the current criticism coming his way — some of which manifested audibly at Stamford Bridge against Nottingham Forest on Sunday — relates to his merits as a footballer. Does he add more to Chelsea’s midfield than he takes away and what even is his best position?
Both questions are startling given Chelsea’s level of investment in Fernandez, but his critics are not the first to ask them. Last season, Mauricio Pochettino privately queried whether his countryman was destructive enough to be a No 6 or creative enough to be a more attacking midfielder and doubted that he and Moises Caicedo possessed the size and power to be a dominant pairing in the Premier League.
Enzo Maresca has a markedly different view of Fernandez’s importance to his Chelsea team and laid out his thinking in a press conference last month.
“I think it’s very difficult in the way we play to find a midfielder that can attack like an attacking midfielder and defend like a holding midfielder,” he said. “For instance, Arsenal are using Declan Rice as an attacking midfielder on the ball and as a holding midfielder when defending. Manchester City, in the past, have done this with Ilkay Gundogan.
“In our case, we are trying to find the balance and find the players who can give us this kind of solution. At the moment, Enzo is the only one. When we have the ball, he is playing like an attacking midfielder and is dropping next to Moises when we don’t have the ball to help us and give us defensive balance.
“In the first game (against City), we used Romeo (Lavia) and Moises as holding midfielders, but Enzo in this moment is playing on the ball as an attacking midfielder and off the ball as a holding midfielder. He is doing very good with us and the idea is to continue with that.”
Why have one position when you can play two? In the graphic below, you can see that Fernandez took the bulk of his touches in the centre of midfield under Pochettino, while operating more on the left side of the middle third of the pitch than the right.
So far this season, as the left-sided No 8 in Maresca’s system, Fernandez is getting more of his touches slightly higher up the pitch and even more focused on the left side. The shifts in where the ball is finding him are subtle but clearly noticeable.
The biggest change is that Fernandez is touching the ball a lot less overall: he is averaging 66.3 touches per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season according to FBref, down from 86.9 touches per 90 minutes in 2023-24. That is a big drop, which is due to him being far less involved in Chelsea’s possession build-up in the defensive and middle thirds — his attacking third touches per 90 minutes are virtually identical this season and last.
Maresca’s preference for a full-back to invert into central midfield alongside Caicedo means there is far less need — or indeed space — for Fernandez to drop deep and contribute to Chelsea’s ball progression before they cross the halfway line. He does still occasionally move into his favourite left-back position to receive the ball and from there his sharp switches of play to the right flank can be an effective way to beat opposition pressure.
Fernandez’s single best attribute might be his ability to identify and play progressive passes, so it is fair to ask if moving him higher in midfield — and giving him the ball to feet much less often — truly maximises him. As a No 8 underlapping Jadon Sancho (a pass-first winger who is best surrounded by runners than other passers), he often looks awkward; in the below sequence he is not quick enough to create separation for a first-time cross, so instead attempts a blind backheel that results in an immediate turnover.
That particular combination is much more dangerous when Sancho decides to be the runner. Here against Brighton, he beats a man and then initiates a one-two with Fernandez, who stops to create space for himself after shaping to underlap and is fouled as he tries to dart onto a perfectly weighted return pass, winning Chelsea a penalty.
Maresca appears to be trying to focus Fernandez’s incisive passing instincts in the opposition half. His 5.4 progressive passes per 90 minutes are way down from his average of 8.6 per 90 minutes last season, as are his passes into the final third per 90 minutes (six, down from 7.2) and his passes into the penalty area (0.5, down from 1.8).
His key passes (passes that lead directly to a shot attempt) have remained relatively consistent, up to 1.4 per 90 minutes from 1.3 in 2023-24. His shot-creating actions per 90 minutes have dipped from 3.3 last season to 2.8 so far under Maresca but, considering the big reduction in the volume of his touches and passes, these more decisive attacking actions represent a higher proportion of his overall contribution to Chelsea’s play.
Yet it is not as if Maresca has reinvented Fernandez as a Gundogan-style goalscorer from midfield, or even a hub of attacking creation: he has had only four shot attempts in 511 minutes played in the Premier League this season, with a cumulative expected goals (xG) value of 0.3. He does not have any assists either, an underperformance on one expected assist (xA).
There have still been sensational passing flashes from Fernandez in these opening weeks. Here he drops a little deeper to counter Brighton’s high press, receives a sharp pass from Levi Colwill on the half-turn, and slips Cole Palmer clean through on goal in a matter of seconds.
This one is classic Fernandez, manufacturing a great scoring chance out of nothing for Noni Madueke with a measured golf shot that drops into his stride in the six-yard box:
But too often it feels like Fernandez is simply occupying a plot of space in Chelsea’s attacking system, receiving the ball with his back to goal rather than with the game in front of him. This was a big problem when it happened under Pochettino because when the ball was lost, he was too far behind the developing opposition counter-attack to offer any form of assistance to Caicedo or the defenders behind him.
That is still the case this season, but Maresca’s deployment of a full-back in midfield next to Caicedo makes Chelsea less immediately vulnerable in transition. Fernandez can instead focus on helping win the ball back higher up the pitch and he has had some good moments in this regard — not least this tackle which led directly to a Madueke goal against Wolves.
Fernandez’s effort and energy are not in question. He presses as hard as his body will allow as part of Chelsea’s broader structure without the ball and he generally works hard to regain a more defensive midfield position nearer to Caicedo when the situation requires him to do so.
But he remains somewhat of a liability defensively. No player has been dribbled past more times than his 13 occasions in the Premier League this season. His body position often disadvantages him and he lacks the athletic explosiveness to keep up with most opponents in space.
Here is an example from the opening minute against Brighton. Fernandez makes a half-tackle without winning the ball, does not give up on the play and closes down the impressive Carlos Baleba, who easily wrong-foots him with a deft first touch and leaves him in the dust as he spins away upfield into space.
It is still preferable for Maresca to have Fernandez pressing higher up the pitch than guarding deeper areas because he too often provides insufficient resistance. Here, he moves across to confront the advancing Pervis Estupinan, but the Brighton left-back simply slips the ball through him into a dangerous shooting position for Baleba.
Fernandez is averaging more attempted tackles per 90 minutes (3.9) in the Premier League than any Chelsea player not named Caicedo this season, but his success rate is 40.9 per cent, only marginally better than Madueke (40 per cent). Caicedo, by comparison, wins the ball 70.4 per cent of the time.
Chelsea did not buy Fernandez to be a defensive force. In six months at Benfica and a handful of World Cup matches with Argentina, he appeared to be a highly polished deep-lying playmaker, capable of controlling matches for his teams at the highest level. That has not yet transpired consistently at Stamford Bridge, though it is fair to point out there has been very little control around him in his first two years.
In the early weeks of Maresca’s tenure, the challenge of accounting for Fernandez’s considerable strengths and significant weaknesses in midfield has become no simpler and the conversation about his importance to this team — and even his place in it — is unlikely to go away.
(Top photo: Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images)
