The Enzo Fernandez conundrum — A metronome in shackles
“A €121 million fee for a midfielder that can’t score (?), can’t run (?), can’t defend (?), and apparently can’t provide (?) too?”
These are just some of the narratives, about Enzo, that you’ll find floating around the internet, both from rival fans and Chelsea fans alike.
However, if you put your phone aside and watch some of Chelsea’s, or Argentina’s games, you’ll instantly recognize the undeniable talent that the ex-Benfica midfielder possesses.
A player that was crucial to La Albiceleste’s first World Cup win, since the Maradona days. Not only that but he was also named Young Player of the Tournament, despite not starting the first two Group Stage games.
His impact, ever since his cameo against Mexico, where he scored, was so big that Linoel Scaloni had to tweak his formation to make the midfield tick around Enzo’s unique qualities.
So, why are we discussing this, just a year after that triumphant night at Lusail Stadium? Why has Enzo struggled to recreate his WC performances in the Premier League?
The answer can sound short and simple, but the reason is pretty complex.
Misprofiling. That’s the simple explanation that most people would use, but what does it mean and how has Enzo been “misprofiled” at Chelsea?
Why has Enzo struggled?
Due to various reasons, like injuries and lack of certain profiles, since joining Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino has used Fernandez as part of a midfield three, alongside Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher.
But, instead of deploying Fernandez as a part of the double-pivot, where he thrived for Roger Schmidt’s Benfica, and Argentina, he’s often being tasked to play further forward, in a fairly unorthodox #10 role.
There are a couple of reasons for this positional shift. The first one being Conor Gallagher and his distinctive skillset.
Gallagher, who has captained Chelsea in all but five league games, is almost a complete contradiction to Enzo, in terms of profiles.
Unlike the Argentinian, Gallagher’s capable of covering big parts of the pitch, defensively, and is one of the best duel-winners in the whole Premier League, something that Enzo’s not particularly great at.
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Those ball-winning qualities have seen Gallagher being regularly deployed as part of the pivot, behind Enzo. But being a ball-winner doesn’t always mean that a footballer should be played further back.
As much as Gallagher has improved under Pochettino, he’s still far from perfect in the first phase of buildup and cannot break lines, as well as his South American teammate.
Similar to a certain N’Golo Kante, Conor plays as a midfield “Energizer Bunny”, who enjoys doing the dirty work, thrives in physical duels, and is elite at pressing both ways.
That brings us to the second reason for this positional rotation. Enzo’s physical profile and inability to cover large spaces in defensive transitions, due to his lack of pace.
By playing Fernandez higher, Pochettino is trying to minimize the risk of him ending up in situations where his limitations can be exploited, while also striving to make the most out of his exquisite passing ability.
On paper, that does make some sense, because Enzo Fernandez ranks in the top 1% for Through passes per 90, a metric that shows the amount of defence-splitting passes that a player makes per 90 minutes.
Here, a lot of people will say “That’s genius, it makes perfect sense”, but that’s why football is not played on paper and why stats can never paint the full picture.
Playing higher up the pitch has somewhat “shackled” the ability of Chelsea’s #8 to influence games.
While he’s still capable of pushing the team forward, he’s also forced to operate more frequently in the half spaces and pockets just in front of the opposition half, which heavily limits the time and space that a player has on the ball.
Unlike most natural number 10s, the River Plate youth product is not exceptional when receiving on the half turn, in the final third, and is much more effective when facing forward, in deeper areas, where he can dictate the flow of the game, punch passes through the opposition’s lines, or make cross-field switches.
This begs the question — Why doesn’t Pochettino just switch their positions? And, that question leads us to the final sub-point.
Chelsea’s back-line and the (lack of certain) profiles in it.
This season, for one reason or another, the mainstays in Chelsea’s defence have been Thiago Silva, Axel Disasi, and Levi Colwill. The first two usually start as the centre-back pairing and the young Englishman slots in at left-back, with the idea of moving inside to create a situational back-three at times.
All very good players in their own right, but the problem with this composition of Chelsea’s defence, in relation to Enzo Fernandez, is their evident lack of recovery pace.
As other people have mentioned, during his time at Benfica, Enzo Fernandez played in front of a very high defensive line, which allowed him to cover a very small amount of space behind him. Something that the current Chelsea lineup can’t offer.
Thiago and Disasi regularly stay deeper than what you’d expect from a team that averages the sixth-highest % of possession in the Premier League.
That means that the midfielders in front of them, mostly Caicedo, who’s the least aggressive in the press, are tasked with covering a large perimeter of space, making the rest defence subpar.
All these different factors combined have made the Enzo Fernandez conundrum hard to solve, from a tactical perspective.
Is there a solution?
Considering all the sub-factors and squad-building issues that Chelsea has, it won’t be as easy as most people think, but Pochettino, and the people around him, need to find a solution because Enzo Fernandez is just too good to be wasted out of position.
Just like other “Specialist” players, like Trent Alexander-Arnold, David Beckham, or even Andrea Pirlo, for example, Enzo needs a system that accommodates his strengths and gives him the tools to be the best version of himself.
Carlo Ancelotti’s use of, the already mentioned, Andrea Pirlo, and Toni Kroos, should be the blueprint for how to use a physically limited, metronomic passer like Enzo.
Letting them dominate the first two phases of buildup and limiting the amount of high-intensity sprints that they have to make, by surrounding them with hard-working players, that are capable of covering the spaces behind and ahead of them.
At AC Milan, Pirlo had Gattuso, Ambrosini, and Seedorf. At Real Madrid, Kroos had/has Casemiro, Modric, Khedira, Vakverde, Tchouameni, and Camavinga.
The most important thing is, who occupies which space. If you swap the roles of Kroos and Valverde, the whole Real Madrid midfield would look dysfunctional as well.
When you have a player with the quality to see everything before everyone else, dictate games on his own, execute almost every pass in the book, and break teams down, he should undoubtedly be the centrepiece of the team.
You “just” need to get the other pieces to fit around him.
