He’s definitely not the player I expected him to be when he arrived as I was expecting a world class playmaker.

His best qualities turned out to be his attitude and making runs in the box. For half of the matches he plays, he’s a liability in the general phase of the game.

However, I don’t know where we would be without his goals this season. Often in clutch moments too. Fair play to the lad. Can appreciate his fighting spirit.

8 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Um is that right?

Fat Frank to West Ham fans iirc. When he came here we were a bit tepid because he was being mis profiled. But he actually bulked up, worked bloody hard on his movement and position and spent hours developing his touch and finishing. Lampard very much was a product of his own creation and is the poster boy for talent pus bloody hard work.

He came with that label from West Ham. Not saying we called him that but we knew of it. That and being seen as a nepotism player based on who his dad and uncle were to West Ham, again that is on the west Ham fans end. We were aware of both.

Left a lot of us uncertain by the signing, was a lot of money at the time. Start was not great but finding his role on top of his outstanding dedication to his craft turned him in to the player he became.

Claudio gave Frank that ideal role as soon as Maka walked through the door. Having seen some of Santos being used since the manager change I now feel playing in Lamps role will give us the best Enzo. Has taken far too long to get there but I think there is a chance he can be really good there.

That is not me saying Enzo is or will be as great as Frank was for us, but that I see him playing well in that role..

Edited February 1Feb 1 by axman2526

4 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Overly harsh - and not comparable in terms of ability or output. For 1, Sidwell had 1 assist, and perhaps 1 goal for us (league cup?).

Was never given the opportunities Enzo has.

I’m talking purely from an ability standpoint, not what they’ve done for Chelsea.

@dkw I explained most of what I meant to Whitewall but you are right me being positive about something is beyond ridiculous. I should stick in my lane. Thank you.

Bin the #10 and play a midfield three. Palmer and Estevao on the wings.

Reckon everyone will perform better.

24 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Bin the #10 and play a midfield three. Palmer and Estevao on the wings.

Reckon everyone will perform better.

Yes this 100%. Jose's 433. That's what I mean for Enzo in Lamps role.

4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Bin the #10 and play a midfield three. Palmer and Estevao on the wings.

Reckon everyone will perform better.

Playing Estevao or Palmer on the left? Mmmm i don't see it.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by Upb78

5 hours ago, axman2526 said:

That is not me saying Enzo is or will be as great as Frank was for us, but that I see him playing well in that role..

Forget about attacking output, the problem is that Fernandez is nowhere near as good in possession, let alone defensively, as Lampard. His raw numbers are closer to Oscar than Frank Lampard, and yet that is the thing we are told to focus on. This with the benefit of having the midfield, and at times strikers, structured around creating him chances.

Because of this, Palmer or the wingers are our primary ball-carriers who also switch the play and initiate most attacks. Because of this, Palmer is receiving the ball much deeper than Fernandez but also is tasked with creating for him rather than playmaking near the box as he used to.

The question is whether Fernandez is 'worth' all this effort to build around. He is a player who will clearly get important, match-winning goals when it counts and that should count for a lot. However when you're trying to build a side that is consistent over 38 games, I'm not sure you can build around a player who is inherently inconsistent.

Drogba is an obviously example of a player who, for two seasons, was involved in big moments but didn't string along consistent performances. That changed in 2006-07 when he also married consistency with his ability to take big moments. Drogba's problem wasn't technical or physical, it was mental. Fernandez on the other hand has glaring technical and physical deficiencies.

I’m all for the 4-3-3 formation with no wingers.

Full backs provide the width and have a front 3 which is interchangeable.

Similar to Mane, Salah and Firmino. They had their starting position but often swapped around. It would allow Estevao and Palmer to find the spaces for us.

To be honest most of the wingers we’ve had since Clearlake came in haven’t been used as wingers. Ours get played on the wrong side so they can be central rather than doing what a winger is meant to do ie hitting the byline and crossing the ball.

3 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Forget about attacking output, the problem is that Fernandez is nowhere near as good in possession, let alone defensively, as Lampard. His raw numbers are closer to Oscar than Frank Lampard, and yet that is the thing we are told to focus on. This with the benefit of having the midfield, and at times strikers, structured around creating him chances.

Because of this, Palmer or the wingers are our primary ball-carriers who also switch the play and initiate most attacks. Because of this, Palmer is receiving the ball much deeper than Fernandez but also is tasked with creating for him rather than playmaking near the box as he used to.

The question is whether Fernandez is 'worth' all this effort to build around. He is a player who will clearly get important, match-winning goals when it counts and that should count for a lot. However when you're trying to build a side that is consistent over 38 games, I'm not sure you can build around a player who is inherently inconsistent.

Drogba is an obviously example of a player who, for two seasons, was involved in big moments but didn't string along consistent performances. That changed in 2006-07 when he also married consistency with his ability to take big moments. Drogba's problem wasn't technical or physical, it was mental. Fernandez on the other hand has glaring technical and physical deficiencies.

Good reply Syd, thanks for that.

Would need to see it for a run of games to see if it would work out the way I hope it would do. There are some issues that you have raised, we would need to see if Caicedo and Santos carry enough of the load to make up for the lack of physicality.

Jose's side though, they were all physical specimens, even the ones not often in the thick of it were rugid.

Don't let @GarnachoCheese see this, Carragher isn't aware of Enzo's low expected pressures and and mediocre aerial percentage wins.

He’s a weird one, he’ll stink the place out every single game but then you can put in a decent argument about how he earned us the most points out of all players this season.

I just wish he was more effective for 90 minutes, I am beginning to see him as a key player for big games but apart from his end product, he’s pretty rubbish. I know that sounds crazy but surely you know what I mean.

Enzo Fernandez is a great player for us and he was one of the few leaders in our team/squad.

5 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Don't let @GarnachoCheese see this, Carragher isn't aware of Enzo's low expected pressures and and mediocre aerial percentage wins.

If Carragher’s saying it, it’s definitely wrong.

Same bloke that said we wouldn’t qualify to the knock outs in the CL. We wouldn’t do anything in the club World Cup. Said Maresca was a top manager and doing a brilliant job. We can add this one to the list now then.

7 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Don't let @GarnachoCheese see this, Carragher isn't aware of Enzo's low expected pressures and and mediocre aerial percentage wins.

You couldn't effing make it up.

Don't fall for the b.s people. Carragher is a twat and is clearly trolling the fanbase. Everyman and his dog that watches Chelsea knows Enzo is a 40m player. I've seen nothing from him in these last 3 seasons that I havent seen from KDH in 8 momths.

When Enzo first signed I was optimistic without knowing anything. Any glimpses of quality I would latch onto e.g Liverpool, so you have to be consistently bad for me to just turn on you. Enzo had alot of credit with me and he used it all up.

The guy is a bang average midfielder that couldn't even save West Ham from relegation.

6 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

You couldn't effing make it up.

Don't fall for the b.s people. Carragher is a twat and is clearly trolling the fanbase. Everyman and his dog that watches Chelsea knows Enzo is a 40m player. I've seen nothing from him in these last 3 seasons that I havent seen from KDH in 8 momths.

When Enzo first signed I was optimistic without knowing anything. Any glimpses of quality I would latch onto e.g Liverpool, so you have to be consistently bad for me to just turn on you. Enzo had alot of credit with me and he used it all up.

The guy is a bang average midfielder that couldn't even save West Ham from relegation.

I think that's right and I think the problem nowadays is guys like Fernandez have so much money they can pay their agents to get the press/pundits/socmedia singing their praises in anticipation of new contract talks ... which, imho, is what Fernandez is up to. - Hence we keep reading snippets or how important he is, now he's in that prat BBC's team of the week... everywhere you look there's something about him lol - ridiculous!

He's ok and obviously believes he should be captain - but he makes too many mistakes.

Edited February 3Feb 3 by Bebe1980

10 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

You couldn't effing make it up.

Don't fall for the b.s people. Carragher is a twat and is clearly trolling the fanbase. Everyman and his dog that watches Chelsea knows Enzo is a 40m player. I've seen nothing from him in these last 3 seasons that I havent seen from KDH in 8 momths.

When Enzo first signed I was optimistic without knowing anything. Any glimpses of quality I would latch onto e.g Liverpool, so you have to be consistently bad for me to just turn on you. Enzo had alot of credit with me and he used it all up.

The guy is a bang average midfielder that couldn't even save West Ham from relegation.

£40 million???

That’s just bo**ocks I’m afraid.

Have a look around at players who cost £40 million and get back to me.

He’s not world class (certainly in our system) but the pile ons from this forum are way over the top.

Fair enough if you don’t rate him but to value him at that is just daft.

I’d be amazed if he went for anything below £70 million. Definitely not worth the fee we paid but I feel too many people are judging him on his transfer fee (which was inflated because we signed him in January) rather than his end product.

Forget Carragher and you’ll still see many pundits and ex players who do rate him. The match going fans also seem to rate him both home and away. They certainly don’t hate him to the levels on here.

Edited February 3Feb 3 by 19seventyone

@timetowaste @Gol15 i guess the world class gene was missing tonight lads

5 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

£40 million???

That’s just bo**ocks I’m afraid.

Have a look around at players who cost £40 million and get back to me.

He’s not world class (certainly in our system) but the pile ons from this forum are way over the top.

Fair enough if you don’t rate him but to value him at that is just daft.

I’d be amazed if he went for anything below £70 million. Definitely not worth the fee we paid but I feel too many people are judging him on his transfer fee (which was inflated because we signed him in January) rather than his end product.

Forget Carragher and you’ll still see many pundits and ex players who do rate him. The match going fans also seem to rate him both home and away. They certainly don’t hate him to the levels on here.

Spot on! It's mass hysteria on this website about Fernandez.

On 01/02/2026 at 09:13, dkw said:

He was never called fat Frank by us, that's just nonsense isn't it.

He was given a tepid welcome as no one really knew how to take the signing, I know I wasn't sure at all, especially for the price.

But by the middle of tge 1st season he was becoming a fan favourite for the effort he put in alone, the quality then started coming through.

To equate Enzo to him after hes been here 3 years is beyond ridiculous.

Agree. In the early Frank days, I recall a Christmas period where Ranieri went full on Tinker mode. Pretty sure we were playing Southampton at home. Might have been Boxing Day. It was 0-0, Frank was on the bench and the entire Bridge was singing “we want Frank, we want Frank”. Pretty sure this was his second season with us…..

On 01/02/2026 at 17:59, axman2526 said:

Claudio gave Frank that ideal role as soon as Maka walked through the door.

That's not actually correct. Ranieri initially played Frank wide midfield and he didn't exactly shine in that position. Some very patchy performances. It was only when he started to play centrally that he become the superstar we know and love.

Jose brought him on massively, as he did with so many of our players at that time.

6 minutes ago, just said:

That's not actually correct. Ranieri initially played Frank wide midfield and he didn't exactly shine in that position. Some very patchy performances. It was only when he started to play centrally that he become the superstar we know and love.

Jose brought him on massively, as he did with so many of our players at that time.

Aye your are right Just, I had forgotten about Claudios diamond midfield phase.

Also that whole Monaco debacle...

12 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Aye your are right Just, I had forgotten about Claudios diamond midfield phase.

Also that whole Monaco debacle...

I was at that game in Monaco. Still completely mystified at what Ranieri was trying to do tactically in that match.

8 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

@timetowaste @Gol15 i guess the world class gene was missing tonight lads

Don't get me started on the Garnacho cameo 😂

14 minutes ago, just said:

I was at that game in Monaco. Still completely mystified at what Ranieri was trying to do tactically in that match.

Ouch that must bring back memories. Jimmy as a wingback...