How Enzo Maresca unlocked Enzo Fernández’s full potential for Chelsea | OneFootball

Enzo Fernandez signed for Chelsea in the final hours of the January transfer deadline day in 2023, costing a British-record transfer fee (at the time) of £106.8m.

With such a high fee came high expectations for Fernandez to instantly become the metronome of this Chelsea side, offering a bit of everything on and off the ball. The onus was then on Graham Potter to assemble his side accordingly, slotting the Argentine into his midfield.

Fernandez didn’t disappoint in his Premier League debut against Fulham, managing 99 touches, six long balls, and six tackles made, exciting fans by instantly showing exactly what he could bring to the side. It seemed Chelsea had finally found their man in midfield.

In his 18 Premier League games during the 2022/23 season under Potter and Frank Lampard, Fernandez averaged the most touches per 90 (97.54), was attempting the most through-balls per 90 (0.64) and was completing the most long passes per 90 (7.72), nearly double the amount of next-best Thiago Silva.

But one area where Fernandez struggled was in defensive transition, averaging the most challenges lost per 90 (2.03). This was something that had already been identified as an issue with Jorginho in the team, who was second place for challenges lost per 90 (1.69).

Both Potter and Lampard tried multiple midfield pairings with Fernandez but the balance was never really struck. Mateo Kovacic and N’golo Kante were aging, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mason Mount were more forward-thinking and Conor Gallagher looked to go box-to-box.

This led to Chelsea spending big money on potential midfield partners for Fernandez in the 2023/24 window, signing Moises Caicedo for £115m and Romeo Lavia for around £58m. The idea behind acquiring these midfield profiles was to add stability alongside the Argentine, allowing him to get on the ball and dictate as whoever partnered him in midfield broke up play.

However, new manager Mauricio Pochettino had other ideas. He looked to set up in a front-footed, aggressive manner, moving Fernandez from his deeper midfield positions into advanced pockets on the left hand side, often leaving Caicedo stranded alone as a defensive midfielder.

Midfield purchases that had been made to optimise Fernandez were instead beginning to prohibit him in Pochettino’s system. The Argentine’s touches dropped to around 90.16 per 90, also causing his volume of long passes completed to drop down to 5.24 per 90, taking away one of his major strengths.

Not only this, but due to Pochettino’s structure, one (or sometimes both) of the full-backs would be advanced up the pitch in possession. This meant when the ball was turned over, protection behind it was sparse. The system failed to cover up the challenges lost per 90, where Fernandez still ranked highly with 1.54 per 90.

Alongside Pochettino’s tactics not being well tailored towards Fernandez, he also suffered with an “inguinal hernia” which he played through most of the season with, having surgery towards the back-end of the campaign and missing the final six games.

So in his first 18 months at the club, Chelsea had struggled to get the best out of their £106.8m midfielder. But since the arrival of Enzo Maresca, things have been very different. Fernandez has assisted more goals (7) than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues and Uefa competitions since the start of November.

So how has the new Chelsea boss platformed Fernandez efficiently, in order to maximise his strengths and cover his weaknesses?

Maresca has looked to configure his line-ups with attention to detail, ensuring he is happy with both the in-possession and out-of-possession approaches his side can follow based on the opposition and game plan.

Fernandez will often start alongside Caicedo in midfield, as he did last season, but the way in which the team rotates is key, in order to get these players into optimal positions. With the use of an inverted full-back, Maresca forms a double pivot of Caicedo-plus-one, which can be any of Malo Gusto, Reece James, Marc Cucurella, Renato Veiga or even Romeo Lavia (with a different form of rotation used).

This means when Fernandez moves forward into that advanced left pocket, instead of leaving a huge gap between himself and Caicedo (which caused many issues last season) that space is now plugged by said inverted full-back, providing a sturdy 3-2 base (five players) behind the ball.

Fernandez’s challenges lost per 90, is actually back up to around 2.12 per 90, still ranking very highly in this category among his Chelsea teammates. However, the difference now is the protection around him covers up this weakness.

By firstly constructing the team to protect Fernandez’s transitional defensive issues, you can then begin to platform him effectively and use his strengths, which lie in his passing and creative qualities.

Maresca has clearly used Fernandez as a tactical weapon in possession, having freedom to drop deep alongside Caicedo and an inverted full-back to dictate play from deep. There, not only can he make long passes and control the tempo, but he is also free to move into advanced half-space positions, in order to provide key passes, create chances and attack the box himself.

Fernandez has created the second-most chances for Chelsea behind Cole Palmer this season with 24 (Palmer having 44), and the second-most ‘big chances’ (5), again behind Palmer (12). While the Argentine’s touches are down to 72.93 per 90, his overall impact has increased, and his weaknesses, while still being evident, have been effectively covered by the tactical changes of Enzo Maresca.

So Chelsea’s £106.8m man is finally being used to his full potential, and has found himself becoming an integral part of this group, even captaining the side in the absence of Reece James to within two points of league-leaders Liverpool.

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