Gary Neville wasn’t impressed with Enzo Fernandez’s performance against Manchester City and said the Chelsea star isn’t “kidding” anyone.
Chelsea started life under Enzo Maresca with a 2-0 defeat to City thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and former Blue Mateo Kovacic.
The Blues had some positive moments in the game but weren’t able to find a breakthrough and made two poor defensive mistakes for the goals.
Neville not impressed with Fernandez
Fernandez, who captained the side in the absence of Reece James received criticism for his performance, particularly in the first half where he struggled to make an impact both offensively and defensively.
The World Cup winner was deployed in a more advanced number ten role with Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo behind him, and after the summer he’s had with the racism incident he was under the microscope.
Mauricio Pochettino had deployed the Argentine in the number ten role at times last season and the position doesn’t appear to suit the 23-year-old, who is much better playing deeper.
Neville, who was commentating for Sky Sports was left unimpressed by Fernandez and was scathing in his criticism of the Argentina international.
“Enzo Fernandez presses when he can’t win it a lot,” he said.
“He then throws up his arms to his team-mates as if to say “where were you?”. He is not kidding anyone.
“I thought Chelsea would take more a few more risks on the ball. But they have been quite basic. The Chelsea midfield are being run ragged.”
It’s a big season for Fernandez, who hasn’t had a huge impact at Chelsea following his big money move from Benfica in January 2023.
He has obvious quality and has displayed it at times, but like many of his team-mates he’s been unable to do it on consistent basis.
It will be interesting to see if Enzo Maresca continues to deploy him as a number ten given they have the likes of Christopher Nkunku who is much better suited to the role, whilst Joao Felix could also be arriving from Atletico Madrid.
I can’t blame Fernandez, the coach put him in that position.