Jamie Carragher was spot on about his worries for £45m Chelsea player this season

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Jamie Carragher raised a concern about a Chelsea player at the start of the season, which is now becoming a reality.

Overall, the Blues have made a positive start to the 2024/25 campaign to wash away any fears that they would struggle under an inexperienced manager at the top level. Instead, Enzo Maresca has won seven, drawn two, and lost two of his opening 11 competitive games as Chelsea manager.

Many people have feared that Maresca would run into difficulty with the sheer size of the Blues squad, which includes two high-profile individuals per position. So far, he’s managed the situation well by heavily rotating between the Premier League and cup competitions.

Remarkably, speaking via talkSPORT last week, Jamie O’Hara stressed Chelsea can challenge for the league title with their squad depth.

• READ MORE: Alan Shearer makes prediction about where Chelsea may finish in the Premier League this season

Jamie Carragher was right about Joao Felix

Chelsea completed the permanent signing of Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid back in August in a £45m transfer (BBC). However, Jamie Carragher shared his concern about the deal just days before it was officially signed.

Carragher questioned where would Felix fit in at Chelsea because there’s so much competition for places.

He said on Sky Sports’ Main Event channel (7:27pm, 19 August): “You have bought Joao Felix, right? Tell me where he is going to play.”

Now we’re a couple of months into the season, we can admit that Carragher was spot on with his fears.

Joao Felix stuck on the Chelsea bench

It’s quite telling that Felix is still yet to start a single game in the Premier League since rejoining Chelsea in the summer.

Felix has been a deployed as a substitute five times already in the league, with his only starts coming against Barrow in the Carabao Cup and Gent in the Conference League.

The versatile 24-year-old talent can play pretty much anywhere in attack. So far, the games he’s started this term has been in the No.10 position. Therefore, it’s pretty obvious that the Portugal international is primarily the understudy to Cole Palmer in the playmaker spot.

Felix can be used off the wing or as a second striker to bring extra firepower to Chelsea’s attack, but it’s looking like such an unlikely task for him to break into the starting line-up in the Premier League.

Of course, the Portugal international can still get plenty of appearances with substitute roles and all the various cup matches. However, we doubt it’s the role he had in his mind when he came back to west London in the summer.