Marc Cucurella has been speaking about teammate Enzo Fernandez following Chelsea’s 2-1 win against Leicester City.
Enzo Fernandez put in a superb performance at the King Power Stadium, scoring a goal and grabbing an assist.
Fernandez covered the most distance that day, so his display was quite a complete one and one Enzo Maresca would have been delighted with.
The Chelsea manager had previously dropped him from his starting XI, but he may have won his place back with that performance.
Marc Cucurella on Enzo Fernandez
Romeo Lavia is the player who has come in for Fernandez, and the midfielder has not let Maresca down.
Former Chelsea midfielder Jody Morris recently praised Lavia for the impact he has made since coming into the team.
However, Cucurella still felt that Fernandez deserved his return to the starting XI over the weekend after working hard.
“I’m really happy for him,” the defender was quoted as saying by Chelsea’s official website. “We are close friends and I think he deserves it. He’s a top professional and he’s had a few games when he didn’t start, but he worked hard and he deserved this game. He played really well and this is football.
“Sometimes you can start on the pitch and sometimes you need to start on the bench, but we are a team, we know what our objectives are and we need to keep going and pushing because if we push we have the talent.”
How do Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia compare?
On the ball, Fernandez brings much more to Maresca’s side than Lavia. He is currently averaging more passes per league game than his teammate and is actually only behind Cole Palmer when it comes to key passes.
Surprisingly, the 23-year-old is also making more tackles on average than Lavia.
| Player | Passes | Key passes | Tackles |
| Enzo Fernandez | 38.7 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
| Romeo Lavia | 26.4 | 0.7 | 1.6 |
Ultimately, Fernandez is probably the better midfielder, which you would expect after Chelsea’s decision to spend more than £100m on him.
However, before putting Fernandez back into the team, Maresca made it clear that Lavia and Moises Caicedo was a midfield partnership that was bringing more physicality to the table.
After his performance at the King Power Stadium, though, you would expect the Chelsea boss to stick with Fernandez for his side’s next Premier League game.
Chelsea take on Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and could move up to second in the table with a win. If Fernandez starts and plays like how he did against Leicester, then victory is certainly possible.
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