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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca insisted no player is irreplaceable after dropping £106m midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
The World Cup winner with Argentina has been demoted to Maresca’s second string featuring only in cup competitions, and has not started either of the last two Premier League games.
Co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali fought a dogged battle to land the 23-year-old from Benfica in January 2023, eventually agreeing a then British-record fee to sign him on deadline day.
But after showing only flashes of the talent that brought him to global attention as his country were crowned world champions in Qatar, he has now been benched with Maresca preferring the less experienced Romeo Lavia as midfield partner to Moises Caicedo.
“I still trust him,” said Maresca. “There’s no reason in the world I can lose confidence in him.
“The reason he isn’t playing in the Premier League is that in this moment I take different decisions, but my confidence is 100 per cent with Enzo.”
Fernandez was disciplined internally in July after footage emerged of him joining in with racist and homophobic taunting of the France team that Argentina beat in the World Cup final, following the country’s Copa America triumph.
Shortly afterwards he was made captain for Chelsea’s first game of the season against Manchester City, but the emergence of Lavia – who missed virtually the whole of last season after the club beat Liverpool in a hard-fought race for his signature – has seen Fernandez bumped from the side, with the manager citing a lack of physicality from the player.
“I like to say there are players that are fantastic, but for me we don’t have indispensable players,” said Maresca. “If Cole (Palmer) is not playing for any reason, we play Joao (Felix). If Nico (Nicolas Jackson) is not playing, we play Christo (Christopher Nkunku). There is not one that we cannot change.
“The reason we change players is because we think that all of them are good. Some of them are better than the rest, but it doesn’t mean they are always the ones that are going to play.”
Reports in Spain have suggested Real Madrid might move for Fernandez in a cash-plus-player deal, and Maresca has already shown himself willing to tell players they are surplus despite the club having spent heavily on them.
Some players are better than the rest but it doesn’t mean they are always the ones that are going to play
Enzo Maresca
Raheem Sterling, who joined from City in 2022 for £50m, was advised by the head coach in August he was not in his plans and to find a new club. Sterling has since joined Arsenal on loan.
Despite having fallen out of favour, Maresca suggested Fernandez could return to the side for Sunday’s trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, who will be led by interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy after confirmation Ruben Amorim will not take charge until later this month.
“Now he’s not playing but it doesn’t mean he’s not going to play (on Sunday),” said Maresca. “It doesn’t mean Romeo and Moises are always going to play.
“It’s a matter of balance. Romeo and Moises give us physicality, strength in the middle. When we play with Enzo it has to be him and one between Moises and Romeo, and when Enzo moves we struggle a bit in the middle in terms of physicality. It’s something Moises and Romeo give us.”
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