“The most obvious one” - Graeme Souness labels Chelsea superstar as wasted signing

Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness has labelled Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez a wasted signing. The Argentine midfielder joined the Blues from Benfica for a then-club-record fee of £106.8 million in January 2023. Chelsea have been on a signing spree since the takeover by BlueCo back in 2022.

Critiquing Chelsea's splash of cash on a large group of young players in recent years, Souness told Up Front’s YouTube channel (via Chelsea Chronicle):

“I think there’s been enormous wastage in the current group of players. I think a lot of them will never come up to the levels they think they’ll come up to. The most obvious one at this moment in time who’s not in the team is Enzo Fernandez.”

Fernandez has made 75 appearances for Chelsea, registering seven goals and six assists. He was a key member of the squad in his first 12 months at the club. However, the return of Romeo Lavia from injury coupled with new manager Enzo Maresca's style of football has seen Fernandez demoted to the bench this season.

According to the same reports, there have also been some rumors of the player leaving the club because his playing style does not suit the Blues. Fernandez has clocked just one assist in 13 games this season, and he has consistently been out of the Premier League XI in recent weeks.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca talks about team selection from an array of forwards

Chelsea have a plethora of attacking players in their squad. The Blues mostly use Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, and Noni Madueke in the Premier League with a toss-up between Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto for the fourth spot in attack.

This leaves the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix, and Mykhailo Mudryk playing the majority of their minutes in the Europa Conference League or the EFL Cup.

Explaining his reason for such selections, Maresca said (via Mirror):

“I feel a shame for Joao and I would like to give him more minutes in the Premier League, but we need defensive balance and we cannot play with Joao, Cole [Palmer], Christo [Nkunku]."

He added:

“I’d like to put all of them on the pitch but then you need to defend, and you need the right balance. I don’t have any doubts that if Joao keeps working well, he will find his moment in the Premier League.”

Talking about Nkunku, Maresca said:

“Christo, every time he plays, he scores, and he does well. Also, he was probably our best player in pre-season, no doubt. He was playing then as an attacking midfielder and now we are using him as a nine, which we all know isn’t his position, he’s more a second striker or between the lines."

He continued:

“But I try to find solution and balance with all of them but not all of them can be in their position, they have to adapt a bit. It’s for Joao, Christo, Misha [Mudryk], they are all players who deserve more chances in the Premier League, but there are also more players who deserve that.”

Chelsea drew their last game 1-1 at Old Trafford against Manchester United. They will next face FC Noah in the Conference League on Thursday, November 7.