Arne Slot has guided Liverpool to the top of the Premier League but he is not the only new boss outperforming expectations. Enzo Maresca, his opposite number at Anfield on Sunday, has navigated a challenging start to his Chelsea tenure impressively.
Seven games in, the Blues are unbeaten since the opening day of the season, six points and seven places better off than at the same stage of last term. On and off the pitch, Maresca has managed the fallout to another hectic transfer window with a calm hand.
There have been numerous positives. Cole Palmer continues to flourish. Competition for places is bringing the best out of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, Jadon Sancho and others. There have been signs of improvement defensively too. Chelsea, so porous last year, are giving up fewer chances and conceding fewer goals.
At the heart of the team, though, Maresca continues to grapple with an inherited issue. How do you get the best out of Enzo Fernandez? The 23-year-old remains a Chelsea conundrum.
His stock could hardly have been higher at the time of his arrival from Benfica, soon after playing a key role in Argentina’s World Cup win. Nearly two years on, though, some fans are questioning whether the £106.8m record signing should even be starting.
Maresca, for his part, has displayed no such doubts, handing him the captain’s armband in the absence of Reece James only weeks after Fernandez was at the centre of a racism storm for singing a derogatory song about the French national team on Argentina’s team bus.
It was a big show of faith from Maresca, who staunchly defended the decision after Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Manchester City on the opening day. Fernandez has subsequently captained Chelsea in every Premier League game for which he has been available this season.
Maresca, though, is using him differently from his predecessors. While Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino deployed Fernandez in a deep-lying role as part of a midfield pivot, the new Chelsea boss has pushed him forward, more like a left-sided No 8.
Fernandez is still asked to help Moises Caicedo, now established at No 6, in a defensive sense. But tucking right-back Malo Gusto into midfield has provided extra cover, with Maresca eager for Fernandez to use his vision and passing ability closer to the box to help break down defences, albeit while providing all-important “balance”.
“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,” Maresca said of Fernandez’s role last month.
“For instance, Arsenal are using Declan Rice as an attacking midfielder on the ball and as a holding midfielder when defending. Man City have done this in the past 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.”
The worry, though, is that Fernandez’s on-ball influence has in fact been reduced by the positional change. A player at his best when orchestrating attacks is getting roughly 20 per cent fewer touches and making 30 per cent fewer passes than he was last season.
This would not be overly concerning if the drop in overall involvement was offset by an increased offensive contribution. But such an increase in productivity is yet to materialise.
In fact, despite playing further forward this season, Fernandez is making fewer passes breaking the opposition’s back line than he was in the last campaign. His numbers are also down for shot-creating actions and passes into the box.
It is understandable, then, that critics are wondering what exactly he is adding to the team right now, especially given the question marks that still hang over his defensive game.
Indeed, while Rice, mentioned by Maresca as being used in a similar role by Arsenal, excels off the ball, Fernandez is far less secure. Since his Premier League debut, only five players have been dribbled past on more occasions. His total of 86 is more than double Rice’s 40.
His off-the-ball work prompted a withering assessment from Sky Sports’ Gary Neville in August. “Enzo Fernandez presses when he can’t win it a lot,” he said. “He then throws up his arms to his team-mates as if to say, ‘Where were you?’ He isn’t kidding anyone.”
These defensive shortcomings mattered little during his stellar World Cup campaign, of course, or indeed in Portugal. But the pace of the Premier League is undoubtedly higher. “The intensity of this league doesn’t suit him,” added Sky Sports’ Jamie Redknapp in August. “He gets caught on the ball and people run off him.”
His subsequent displays have done little to ease those doubts. In fact, if anything, the off-the-ball issues have become more obvious. Fernandez is getting dribbled past more often, his average rising from 1.5 per 90 minutes last season to 2.3 per 90 minutes this term.
Maresca insisted last month that he was happy with how Fernandez is performing in his new role – “he is doing very good with us and the idea is to continue with that” – but an unwanted pattern has emerged. Chelsea tend to fare better without him.
Since his introduction to the team in February 2023, they have a win rate of only 32.3 per cent in the 65 games he has started compared to a whopping 84.2 per cent in the 19 games he hasn’t.
It would of course be hugely unfair to attribute Chelsea’s struggles during this period solely to Fernandez.
For the most part, he has featured in a dysfunctional team. The tumultuous circumstances at Chelsea, which are only now beginning to settle, have not been easy for anyone. In spite of it all, he has at times been able to demonstrate the outstanding ball-playing qualities which convinced the club to spend so much on him.
But it is troubling, nonetheless, that nearly two years on from his £106.8m arrival, and even in the context of the team’s positive start to the season under their new head coach, Fernandez’s role and contribution are still subjects of debate.
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