Enzo Maresca must axe Chelsea player who was ‘absolutely bullied’ vs Lincoln City
Enzo Maresca has a lot to think about after Chelsea’s narrow 2-1 win against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup but one player was particularly bad.
The last week has been tough for the Blues after Robert Sanchez was sent off against Manchester United in the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Paul Merson has urged Chelsea to sign a world-class goalkeeper even if it defies their transfer policy, otherwise he predicts they will struggle to compete for the biggest prizes in football.
Whether he is world-class is debatable but Chelsea are investigating signing Mike Maignan from AC Milan and he would represent a major upgrade on Sanchez if he is able to translate his form from Serie A to the Premier League.
Chelsea fans slam Enzo Fernandez vs Lincoln
Enzo Fernandez was on the receiving end of Chelsea fans’ frustration for the way he played against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday (23 September).
It is not the first time Fernandez has played poorly for Chelsea and it seems fans have had enough.
One Chelsea fan put it very simply, saying: “Enzo Fernandez one of the worst ever for sure.”
Fans are even calling for Enzo Maresca to drop the midfielder: “Enzo Fernandez also needs to be benched. No favouritism here.”
Another fan said: “Established international players used to come to these league 1 grounds and exude a world class aura. Enzo Fernandez is rushing passes bcus he’s struggling to keep up with Lincoln City’s press.”
One fan even thinks Chelsea should sell the £106m midfielder.
Enzo Maresca must axe Fernandez against Brighton
After 70 minutes, Chelsea boss Maresca hooked Fernandez to much celebration online from fans.
He was poor for the whole game with little to redeem his performance.
The stats paint an ugly picture, too. From 60 touches, he played just one key pass while misplacing 11 passes and lost the ball 16 times in total.
Worse yet, he won just two of his five ground duels and he also made an error leading to goal. Most damning of all is that he made zero tackles or interceptions.
Maresca has some big team selection decisions to make in the next few weeks and he will certainly have the recent form of Fernandez in the back of his mind.