Pat Nevin wasn’t too impressed by the performance he saw from one Chelsea player in their opening day defeat against Manchester City.
The Blues kickstarted the new Premier League season with a 2-0 loss at home to reigning champions Manchester City.
There were some real glimpses of quality from Chelsea, who had new head coach Enzo Maresca in the dugout for his first competitive match. However, Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic were both on the scoresheet to earn the visitors three points.
Enzo Fernandez, who captained the hosts at Stamford Bridge, has actually come under-fire for his individual performance. It’s not an ideal start when Mario Melchiot suggested Fernandez has a point to prove, as quoted by ESPN.
Pat Nevin critical of Enzo Fernandez display
Pat Nevin singled out Chelsea midfielder Fernandez for a really quiet performance versus Man City this weekend. In particular, he didn’t enjoy him playing the number 10 position.
Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live (4:53pm, 18 August): “Enzo is not coming back and covering the space but he’s not doing much going forward either. He has to do more for the team defensively.”
He later added (5:27pm): “Enzo has been very, very quiet in that number 10 position. You have to be central to everything in that position. If you’re Conor Gallagher you’d be thinking you can do better than that.”
A poor start from Enzo Fernandez
Unfortunately, Fernandez didn’t have the best start to a new campaign on Sunday. Let’s hope the stand-in captain improves moving forward.
Chelsea lined up with a midfield trio of Fernandez, Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo. It was the former that played most advanced and drifted into a No 10 position for large spells, though.
The Argentine looked a bit more natural when he dropped deeper for the final 20 minutes, so it’s a big dilemma for Maresca to work out in the early weeks of the season.
FotMob has provided the match statistics from Fernandez’s below par display against Man City:
- Match rating – 6.5
- Minutes played – 90
- Total shots – 3
- Touches in opposition box – 7
- Accurate passes – 44/51
- Successful dribbles – 0
- Tackles won – 1/2
- Ground duels won – 4/7
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