“A new lease on life?” – Midfielder’s new position could get him back into Maresca’s plans | OneFootball

Breaking down Saturday’s win over Leicester City, the London is Blue podcast honed in on Enzo Maresca’s comments on his namesake Enzo Fernandez.

The Argentine was given a slightly surprising start considering he’s not been in the team much in recent weeks, and given he played for Argentina in the international break. The managers’ comments were full of praise, as the podcast presenters pointed out:

“I think that was an excellent point from Maresca. It was his best performance of the season. And he was predominantly on the right. This was a situation where Caicedo was basically the lone midfielder,” they pointed out.

“Enzo was able to roam, pick out those passes, enjoy the space between the midfield and defence. 85% pass accuracy, 82 touches, was on the ball frequently, was dictating play, making critical passes, in between the lines. We’ve got to him his flowers when he is playing well. And who knows, maybe this is a new lease on life for him?”

Enzo Fernandez in midfield for Chelsea. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Enzo’s battle for significance to continue despite great showing

Of course, the problem for Enzo is that playing that role doesn’t really help him in terms of getting back into the team – if anything, the competition for minutes in the attacking band is even more intense than that in midfield.

It was also a pretty unique game in that Caicedo was able to man the midfield alone. That’s partly because he was playing so well, but was mainly because we were facing such a limp Leicester team with no bite in the middle.

But no matter where or how he ends up being used, the fact he showed such competence in a new role can only be a good thing in terms of trying to remain a key player.