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“When he is fit, he is one of the best midfielders,” enthused Enzo Maresca after Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Everton a few weeks ago. His team had laboured to a narrow home win but the manager was full of praise for his young midfielder. Chelsea have paid huge transfer fees for midfielders in recent years, breaking the British transfer record to sign Enzo Fernández from Benfica for £107m and then upping the record to bring in Moisés Caicedo from Brighton, but Maresca knows his team is at its best when Roméo Lavia is available.
Fernández and Caicedo have performed superbly in recent weeks as Chelsea have chased down a place in the Champions League. The Ecuadorian has done particularly well at right-back, having been moved out of midfield to accommodate Lavia in the starting XI. Caicedo has dropped into defence and operated as an inverted right-back, doing so to a better standard than both Reece James and Malo Gusto.
Given his hefty transfer fee and ability to win back the ball in the centre of the park, Caicedo probably expected to be one of the first names on the team sheet, but his new position in the team shows just how valuable Lavia is to Chelsea. Maresca has picked the former Southampton man alongside Fernández at the base of his 4-2-3-1 formation because he gives the team greater balance.
Lavia has the best pass success rate in the Chelsea squad (91.8%) this season in the league. He completed 100% of his passes against Liverpool at the weekend – as he had done against Tottenham last month (before he was forced off with an injury). The 21-year-old really caught the eye in the 3-1 victory against Liverpool.
Having already clinched the title, there was not much at stake for Arne Slot’s men at Stamford Bridge but, even so, Lavia gave a performance that warranted adulation. To not misplace any of his 23 passes against the best side in the land is a tremendous feat. Cole Palmer made most of the headlines by scoring his first goal in 18 games but Lavia was the player who dictated the tempo for Chelsea.
Chelsea fans must be delighted by his form given he had such an arduous start at the club. The Belgium international was restricted to just 32 minutes of league action in his debut campaign for the club as an ankle problem followed by a hamstring injury denied him the chance to consolidate a starting spot under Mauricio Pochettino.
Lavia clearly has the faith of Maresca, who threw him into action on the first day of the season against Manchester City. Further hamstring complaints meant he didn’t start another game until the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool in October, two months after his full Chelsea debut, but Maresca clearly wants to pick the midfielder as soon as he is given the green light to do so. Maresca’s side can get by fine without Lavia but they are a far stronger side when he plays.
Not only is Lavia a tidy performer in possession, but his press resistance and close control make him the ideal player to receive the ball from defence and start attacks. He gives away possession as a result of an unsuccessful touch just 0.1 times per 90 minutes; to put that in context, Caicedo does it one time per 90 and Fernández 0.9 times per 90. Rifle the ball into Lavia and he will control with ease – a skill that means Chelsea can build from the back without fear of being caught short in defence. For a Chelsea side that ranks third for possession (57.6%) in the league this season, Lavia is the ideal cog in Maresca’s machine.
Yet, the “when he is fit” line from Maresca after the Everton game is telling. Lavia’s start against Liverpool was just his 10th in nearly two years at the club. He has not yet completed a full match in a Chelsea shirt and was left out of their Conference League squad due to fitness issues. When his teammates line up to face Real Betis in the final of the competition in Wroclaw later this month, he will be watching from the stands because his manager could not trust him to be fit.
The pros outweigh the cons for Maresca, though. Lavia has proven instrumental in his sporadic outings, none more so than against Liverpool. His availability could be the key to Chelsea securing a top-five finish this season.
This is an article by WhoScored
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