Arne Slot has guided Liverpool to the highest of the Premier League however he isn’t the one new boss outperforming expectations. Enzo Maresca, his reverse quantity at Anfield on Sunday, has navigated a difficult begin to his Chelsea tenure impressively.
Seven video games in, the Blues are unbeaten because the opening day of the season, six factors and 7 locations higher off than on the similar stage of final time period. On and off the pitch, Maresca has managed the fallout to a different hectic switch window with a peaceful hand.
There have been quite a few positives. Cole Palmer continues to flourish. Competitors for locations is bringing the most effective out of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, Jadon Sancho and others. There have been indicators of enchancment defensively too. Chelsea, so porous final 12 months, are giving up fewer possibilities and conceding fewer targets.
On the coronary heart of the staff, although, Maresca continues to grapple with an inherited subject. How do you get the most effective out of Enzo Fernandez? The 23-year-old stays a Chelsea conundrum.
His inventory may hardly have been larger on the time of his arrival from Benfica, quickly after taking part in a key function in Argentina’s World Cup win. Practically two years on, although, some followers are questioning whether or not the £106.8m report signing ought to even be beginning.
Maresca, for his half, has displayed no such doubts, handing him the captain’s armband within the absence of Reece James solely weeks after Fernandez was on the centre of a racism storm for singing a derogatory music concerning the French nationwide staff on Argentina’s staff bus.
It was an enormous present of religion from Maresca, who staunchly defended the choice after Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Manchester Metropolis on the opening day. Fernandez has subsequently captained Chelsea in each Premier League recreation for which he has been accessible this season.
Maresca, although, is utilizing him in a different way from his predecessors. Whereas Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino deployed Fernandez in a deep-lying function as a part of a midfield pivot, the brand new Chelsea boss has pushed him ahead, extra like a left-sided No 8.
Fernandez is now working additional ahead and nearer to the left flank
Fernandez continues to be requested to assist Moises Caicedo, now established at No 6, in a defensive sense. However tucking right-back Malo Gusto into midfield has supplied further cowl, with Maresca longing for Fernandez to make use of his imaginative and prescient and passing skill nearer to the field to assist break down defences, albeit whereas offering all-important “stability”.
“I feel it is very tough in the way in which we play to discover a midfielder that may assault like an attacking midfielder and defend like a holding midfielder,” Maresca stated of Fernandez’s function final month.
“As an illustration, Arsenal are utilizing Declan Rice as an attacking midfielder on the ball and as a holding midfielder when defending. Man Metropolis have accomplished this up to now with Ilkay Gundogan.
“In our case, we’re looking for the stability and discover the gamers who may give us this type of answer. In the intervening time, Enzo is the one one.”
The concern, although, is that Fernandez’s on-ball affect has the truth is been lowered by the positional change. A participant at his greatest when orchestrating assaults is getting roughly 20 per cent fewer touches and making 30 per cent fewer passes than he was final season.
This might not be overly regarding if the drop in general involvement was offset by an elevated offensive contribution. However such a rise in productiveness is but to materialise.
In actual fact, regardless of taking part in additional ahead this season, Fernandez is making fewer passes breaking the opposition’s again line than he was within the final marketing campaign. His numbers are additionally down for shot-creating actions and passes into the field.
It’s comprehensible, then, that critics are questioning what precisely he’s including to the staff proper now, particularly given the query marks that also cling over his defensive recreation.
Certainly, whereas Rice, talked about by Maresca as being utilized in the same function by Arsenal, excels off the ball, Fernandez is much much less safe. Since his Premier League debut, solely 5 gamers have been dribbled previous on extra events. His complete of 86 is greater than double Rice’s 40.
His off-the-ball work prompted a withering evaluation from Sky Sports activities‘ Gary Neville in August. “Enzo Fernandez presses when he cannot win it rather a lot,” he stated. “He then throws up his arms to his team-mates as if to say, ‘The place had been you?’ He is not kidding anybody.”
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These defensive shortcomings mattered little throughout his stellar World Cup marketing campaign, after all, or certainly in Portugal. However the tempo of the Premier League is undoubtedly larger. “The depth of this league does not swimsuit him,” added Sky Sports activities’ Jamie Redknapp in August. “He will get caught on the ball and other people run off him.”
His subsequent shows have accomplished little to ease these doubts. In actual fact, if something, the off-the-ball points have change into extra apparent. Fernandez is getting dribbled previous extra typically, his common rising from 1.5 per 90 minutes final season to 2.3 per 90 minutes this time period.
Maresca insisted final month that he was proud of how Fernandez is performing in his new function – “he’s doing superb with us and the concept is to proceed with that” – however an undesirable sample has emerged. Chelsea are inclined to fare higher with out him.
Since his introduction to the staff in February 2023, they’ve a win fee of solely 32.3 per cent within the 65 video games he has began in comparison with a whopping 84.2 per cent within the 19 video games he hasn’t.
It could after all be vastly unfair to attribute Chelsea’s struggles throughout this era solely to Fernandez.
For essentially the most half, he has featured in a dysfunctional staff. The tumultuous circumstances at Chelsea, that are solely now starting to settle, haven’t been straightforward for anybody. Despite all of it, he has at instances been capable of display the excellent ball-playing qualities which satisfied the membership to spend a lot on him.
However it’s troubling, nonetheless, that just about two years on from his £106.8m arrival, and even within the context of the staff’s optimistic begin to the season underneath their new head coach, Fernandez’s function and contribution are nonetheless topics of debate.
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