Chelsea certainly had one of their poorer games of the season away to Newcastle United on Wednesday night, which ended in them being dumped out of the Carabao Cup.
Enzo Maresca, the Chelsea manager, has made a positive start to life in charge at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, he watched his side suffer their fourth defeat of the campaign yesterday at St James’ Park.
The Blues suffered a 2-0 loss away to Newcastle to exit the domestic cup competition, although it’s worth flagging there were 11 changes to the team that beat the Magpies a few days earlier in the Premier League.
Speaking earlier this week, Paul Scholes admitted Maresca’s positive impact at Chelsea has surprised him. There’s clearly still plenty of areas where he can improve the group, though.
Jason Cundy thinks Enzo Fernandez’s passing was poor in Chelsea loss to Newcastle
Jason Cundy singled out Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez for criticism during the midweek defeat to Newcastle. In particular, he was not impressed by the 23-year-old midfielder’s passing.
“Enzo’s given the ball away way too many times, whether it be under pressure or not under pressure. It’s not been great,” Cundy said via Chelsea’s official app (8:35pm, 30 October).
Unfortunately, Fernandez couldn’t make the desired impact with his return to the starting line-up in the cup tie. As a result, don’t be surprised if he drops to the bench for Sunday’s league trip to Manchester United, with Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia preferred in the centre of the park.
Even Newcastle fans criticised Chelsea’s Fernandez for his performance against them, which is certainly a worrying sign.
Has Enzo Fernandez lost his spark?
As it stands, Fernandez finds himself out of Chelsea’s best XI. It’s certainly not something that many people would’ve predicted before the season started.
In terms of the central midfielder’s display versus Newcastle, he did get plenty of the ball and looked to try ignite a comeback. However, he’s not quite got a good rhythm in his game right now, while his pass selection is sometimes questionable.
FOTMOB has provided the passing statistics from Fernandez’s performance against Newcastle in the cup defeat:
- Touches – 138
- Accurate passes – 106/121 (88%)
- Passes into final third – 13
- Chances created – 1
- Accurate crosses – 1/8 (13%)
- Accurate long balls – 3/6 (50%)
Maresca admitted he wanted Fernandez and Chelsea to find more control against Newcastle, but the game got away from them in the opening 45 minutes.
The emergence of Lavia and Caicedo in the Blues midfield has resulted in Fernandez being pushed to the side. So far, the Argentine’s not responded too well and he’s got to improve to force his way back into Maresca’s team.
He’s super confident and plays his best football whenever he represents his country. It’s now the time for him to show that at his club, too.
Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox
