£180k p/w Chelsea ‘Conundrum’ Faces Fight to Regain Starting Place Under Maresca

Despite Chelsea’s narrow 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, a sense of optimism is radiating from the Blues’ dressing room and rippling across London. Enzo Maresca has restored confidence in the team, steering them back on course for the first time under the Todd Boehly regime. This newfound belief was evident at Anfield, where the travelling fans gave their side a standing ovation in appreciation of their effort and spirit.

They are currently outperforming expectations at the start of the 2024/25 season. There are plenty of positives: Cole Palmer continues to outdo himself, while competition for places is elevating the performances of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, and Jadon Sancho. Defensively, Chelsea have also tightened up, conceding fewer chances and goals compared to last season.

At the core of the team, however, Maresca is still wrestling with an inherited issue —unlocking the full potential of Enzo Fernandez. The 23-year-old remains a tantalising enigma for Chelsea, a player brimming with £106.8m worth of talent but yet to consistently showcase the brilliance he’s capable of. While others around him have stepped up to the plate, Sky Sports have suggested he remains a costly ‘conundrum’ in his Italian manager’s plans to take the Blues back to where they belong, and he’s currently not justifying his £180k-per-week salary.

The Enzo Fernandez ‘Conundrum’

Chelsea appear to do better without him in the team

Upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge in January 2023, Fernandez’s stocks couldn’t have been any higher. He was fresh off the back of a World Cup win with Argentina and being spoken about in the same breath as the very best midfielders of his generation. Nonetheless, the Blues have had an issue in recent years of spending too much money on players who fail to live up to their great expectations.

Neither Frank Lampard nor Mauricio Pochettino could find the key to unlocking his full potential, but Maresca’s arrival brought renewed hope that the midfielder would soon show he’s worth his weight in gold. After all, he had no second thoughts about handing him the captain’s armband in the absence of Reece James only weeks after the 23-year-old 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 this naivety that set the tone for Fernandez’s withering in the months that followed. Statistics that go against the idea that the Argentinian should be starting in Chelsea’s midfield blueprint continue to steal the headlines, and it looks increasingly likely that he will fade into nonexistence in west London.

Coming on in the 53rd minute to replace Romeo Lavia, Chelsea, again, looked far weaker once Fernandez was on the pitch. In his 37-minute cameo, the defensive midfielder failed to win any of his tackles or aerial duels, while his pass success rate of 81% is far below the standard expected of a player that his club splashed out the most they ever have to capture him.

Fernandez Faces Stern Fight To Regain Starting Spot

Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo look much more adept

Romeo Lavia made just his fourth appearance of the season in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat against Liverpool on Sunday. But, impressively, he looked much more up to speed and in tune with what Maresca wanted from his midfielders. For much of the first hour of football, him and Moises Caicedo controlled the tempo of the midfield and were assured both on and off the ball.

The surprise inclusion of the Belgian appeared to transform his side’s usual transparent chaos into ordered calm. With his fanbase hailing him after just 53 minutes against the Reds, it was clear that Fernandez is now under pressure to regain his starting spot, especially since it was this exact substitution that ended up seeing the hosts retake control of a tie that was poised between the two English heavyweights.

What’s more, Caicedo also put in a good shift, absorbing the pressure effectively. Meanwhile, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall recently shone in a Europa Conference League game against Gent, and so, naturally, Fernandez is falling down the pecking order quicker than Bambi slips on ice. As costly as leaving him out of the team may be from a business point of view, money is anything but a concern to the Blues’ ambitions on the pitch.

Statistics courtesy of FotMob . Correct as of 20.10.24.