Mauricio Pochettino’s side have hit a purple patch without their big-money midfielder, but it’s unfair to suggest he had been holding the Blues back
It was telling that the official confirmation of Enzo Fernandez’s season-ending surgery was greeted with such a muted reaction by the Chelsea fanbase. You would think that the loss of their £106 million ($133m) midfield maestro – in the thick of a European chase – would be considered catastrophic. However, the vast majority responded with well wishes amid an unspoken acceptance that this was the correct course of action.
The Argentine has gone under the knife having played for months with a hernia in his groin, with the injury noticeably affecting his performances since the turn of the year while this summer’s Copa America is fast approaching.
In his quest for a contingency plan in Fernandez’s absence, head coach Mauricio Pochettino has almost inadvertently turned Chelsea’s form around; the Blues have won three of their last five league games without Fernandez and in emphatic fashion, resulting in claims that the 23-year-old is surplus to requirements. But are they really better off without their £106m man?
Through the pain barrier
It’s a damning indictment of Chelsea’s injury woes this season that Fernandez has been forced to play through the pain barrier for such a prolonged period. Having finally undergone season-ending surgery in late April in the hope of being fit for Copa America in the summer, he revealed that he had been “dragging the pain” for around six months – which means he had been struggling since the early part of the campaign.
Posting on social media, Fernandez wrote: “I needed to get this surgery since I [have] been dragging the pain for about six months. It was something I could avoid while constantly treating myself with injections and medications. But a few weeks ago, the pain started to get more and more intense, without any of this taking effect, and it was worse as I trained and played annoyingly, but I didn’t want to stop being in the games I had.
“Whenever I got to play with Chelsea jersey, like the national team, I always try to do my best despite all this, but I can’t stand it anymore.”
‘Trying to get there’
Fernandez had previously admitted that his performances were falling short of his own expectations as he searched for the form that convinced Chelsea to spend nine figures on him.
“I’m trying to get there,” he said in an in-house interview shortly before having his operation last month, “to the version of me that you saw at the World Cup. I want to feel like that Enzo, that was playing at the World Cup. I want to get back there.
“I feel good, getting better each day, but I still don’t feel like I’m at 100 percent. I’m still adapting and still don’t feel entirely myself, but I’m trying to get there as quickly as possible and working hard every day in order to do so.”
Overreliance
Fernandez is correct in his implication that his level has dropped off in recent weeks and, arguably, months. Though he was one of Chelsea’s most consistent performers in another testing campaign, he has not maintained the standards that he set early in the season – or indeed those that persuaded the Blues to part with such an eye-watering sum in his time at Benfica and for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
That is almost certainly a result of overuse, as he started and played the full 90 minutes more often than not despite having a hernia for six months.
On the opening day of 2023-24 he looked every bit a potential £106m player in a dominant midfield display against Liverpool; he was fit, lean and sharp in a performance that was a true reflection of his obvious ability. By mid-September, he was the player with the most successful passes into the final third in Europe’s top five leagues.
But before his season was curtailed by surgery, Fernandez predictably looked short of fitness, sluggish in possession and laboured in his movements – all of which can be brutally exposed by the cut and thrust of the Premier League. In the 2-2 draw against Sheffield United in early April, it was pointed out that Fernandez lost the ball 23 times against the Premier League’s worst team, finished with less than 80% passing accuracy, and won just a single duel out of the 10 he engaged in.
But Pochettino clearly felt he had nowhere else to turn having been shorn of options in midfield; summer-signing Romeo Lavia has missed all-but 30 minutes of the season, and he has been regularly joined on the sidelines by inexperienced Lesley Ugochukwu and Carney Chukwuemeka. Cesare Casadei was recalled from his loan at Leicester City in January, but he is too young to be relied upon.
Recency bias
A glance at Chelsea’s recent results without Fernandez in their engine room has prompted some reactionary takes – not least from pundit Stephen Warnock, who told Sky Sports: “He’s (Pochettino) got a big decision to make in the summer with one player and he’s cost a lot of money: Enzo Fernandez. I think they are better without him. I think it’s very easy to run off the back of Enzo Fernandez. He doesn’t take responsibility for tracking runners and is quite sloppy on the ball. He’s struggled.
“I know he’s picked up a groin injury and he’s had surgery, so maybe I’m being harsh on him. Chelsea look a better balanced team when he doesn’t play in it. That relationship between [Moises] Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez isn’t great. You put Cucurella in there and he (Caicedo) looks more comfortable.”
Warnock may be right in his assertion that Fernandez has struggled, and Pochettino’s side have found some form in his absence, but you would be hard pressed to find a Chelsea follower who believes the team is better without him – a player who has shone in some of the Blues’ best performances this season despite having a hernia in his groin for the vast majority of it.
Enzo’s understanding with fellow South American Caicedo has been evolving before our eyes, too, with the Ecuadorian finally settling at Stamford Bridge and beginning to look like the player Chelsea thought their £115m ($144m) was buying, thanks in no small part to having fellow Spanish speaker Fernandez alongside him.
Unlikely tactical tweak pays off
In Fernandez’s absence, Pochettino has been forced to compensate – and so far his tactical tweaks have paid off. It’s worth bearing in mind that Chelsea’s uptick in form began at half-time against Aston Villa, with the Fernandez-less Blues 2-0 down at the break.
After an impassioned team talk at the break, the Argentine tactician opted to shift left-back Cucurella into midfield when out of possession, which made Chelsea far more solid in the central areas and allowed Conor Gallagher to press forward.
It was the England international who would win possession high up the pitch before teeing up Noni Madueke to pull one back, before sweeping home an excellent finish late on to equalise. Chelsea haven’t looked back since, with Gallagher in particular leading by example in consecutive impressive victories over London rivals Tottenham and West Ham, as he continues to raise the levels of those around him.
Although Cucurella’s shift is at the crux of this tactical tweak and Gallagher is the main beneficiary, this is not a team that a fully-fit Enzo wouldn’t step back into. Rather, it’s the manager’s realisation that Chelsea benefit most from a double-pivot without the ball – something they could achieve with Gallagher alongside Caicedo doing the running and dirty work, with Fernandez proving in the past that he does his best work in a more advanced role.