Darren Bent has claimed Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez has the “worst pass appreciation that I’ve ever seen.”
The World Cup winner joined the Blues from Benfica in January 2023 in a deal worth £107m and has established himself as a regular in the Chelsea midfield.
The 23 year old is having a good season and has scored seven goals during some impressive displays including a superb freekick against Aston Villa.
However, the midfielder wasn’t up to his usual standards in the Carabao Cup final and put in a disappointing performance giving the ball away on multiple occasions and struggled to make an impact on the game.
Bent has not be impressed with the Argentine and speaking on talkSPORT Drive said: “Enzo Fernandez for the money they paid, he’s got the worst pass appreciation that I’ve ever seen.”
“Even a five yard pass or a 10 yard pass so your teammate can control it and do something with it, awful.”
Bent added: “If you’re a Chelsea fan and you’re watching that, I know they wanted Jorginho out, but he’d have been so much better in that situation than Caicedo.”
“What Jorginho does better than anyone is control the pace of the game. Even Mateo Kovacic, they let Kovacic go to Man City, you can’t tell me that Kovacic and Jorginho aren’t better than Caicedo and Enzo?”
Fernandez will be looking to put the disappointment of Sunday behind him and will likely have a key role to play for the Blues as they prepare for a must win game against Leeds in the FA Cup fifth round tomorrow evening at Stamford Bridge.
Jorginho does exactly one thing well — pass. He never wins a duel, whether in possession or out of possession, because he has zero pace. He picks up more than his fair share of yellow cards (because he can’t run or tackle and has no choice but to foul in desperation). And on top of all that he doesn’t score (except from the penalty spot). So, despite any inadequacies of Enzo and Caicedo, there’s no version of history in which we’d have been better off with Jorginho. Kovacic is great, but it took N’Golo Kante in his prime (i.e., one of the greatest ball winners in the history of the game) to cover for Jorginho and as soon as the former lost his fitness and left the club the latter became liability. One of the greatest bits of business we ever did was getting money for Jorginho, lol!