Where ‘fizzy drink’ Joao Felix should play for Chelsea

Benfica’s former director of football Tiago Pinto hailed him as a genius. Roy Keane dismissed him as a fizzy drink. Where on this spectrum can Chelsea fans expect João Félix to land during his second spell at the club?

Keane’s description of Félix during Euro 2024 was at one level nonsensical, but also instantly comprehensible. During an itinerant career at Europe’s biggest clubs, Félix has delivered just enough to fill some showy YouTube compilations without truly establishing himself anywhere. To continue Keane’s drink analogy, there has been too much froth and not enough body.

Félix spent last season on loan from Atletico Madrid at Barcelona, making 18 La Liga starts while providing seven goals and three assists. He also scored three goals in Barcelona’s Champions League campaign.

His loan spell at Chelsea in 2022-23 saw him score four Premier League goals in 11 starts, but his short stay is probably best remembered for a very peculiar debut. Félix looked the best player on the pitch for 58 minutes at Fulham, before he was sent off for a lunging tackle on Kenny Tete.

Now Félix returns to Stamford Bridge to find a squad brimming with attackers and a new head coach in Enzo Maresca. How might he look to use Félix?

Off the left wing

When Maresca was appointed, it was generally assumed to be good news for Chelsea’s flyers, such as Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke and a certain Raheem Sterling.

The Italian is from the Pep Guardiola school of coaching, where wingers are usually asked to stay high and wide with chalk on boots. The idea is to create isolation against their full-back, with speedy, one-on-one specialists the ideal profile to take advantage of these scenarios. Early in Guardiola’s time at City it was Sterling and Leroy Sané. Across the coaching family tree at Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have been mainstays.

It was something of a surprise then to see Madueke and Mudryk on the bench for Chelsea’s first Premier League game of the season against City. Maresca picked Christopher Nkunku on the left and Cole Palmer on the right, two players who have thrived in more central positions.

To use the City analogue, this wide pairing was more Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish of 2022-23 than Sterling, Sane or Riyad Mahrez. Perhaps it was an indication that Maresca wants ball-retainers and schemers on his flanks rather than more direct threats, or maybe it was a specific tactic for facing City.

Should Chelsea continue with this dynamic, then Félix could play as a drifter from the left, in the Nkunku role. His heatmap at Barcelona last season shows a player at home in the inside-left slot. The question is whether this would leave Chelsea short of runners beyond the opponent’s back-line.

False nine

Félix’s best position is thought to be as a second striker or No 10, a position that does not really exist in Chelsea’s system, at least when they are in possession.

Chelsea’s formation will show up as a 4-3-3 on the television graphics, but on the pitch will morph into a 3-2-5 or 3-2-2-3 with a midfield box when they attack. Maresca is a positional coach, and a player who wanders across the pitch in search of touches will not be accommodated.

A look at Félix’s touch-map during his Premier League minutes in his previous spell at Chelsea shows a player who operated all across the front-line as well as deeper midfield areas.

The position in Chelsea’s system that would afford Félix the most freedom is centre-forward, operating as a false nine and dragging defenders out of position.

However, with Nkunku, Palmer and Enzo Fernández also vying for that same space between the opposition’s midfield and defence, is there room for another body between the lines? England’s Euro 2024 campaign demonstrated the problems of too many players moving towards the ball.

In addition, the false-nine door may well be bolted shut for Félix with a deal for Napoli striker Victor Osimhen moving into view. Should Chelsea add Osimhen to a squad featuring Nicolas Jackson, Félix would get minimal minutes at striker.

Attacking midfielder

The pockets of space Félix likes to operate in are generally filled by specialist central midfielders in Maresca’s system. He brought Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with him from Leicester for that left-sided No 8 berth, while Fernández and Moisés Caicedo are also in the frame.

On the ball, Félix has the creativity and smoothness to contribute at the top of Chelsea’s midfield box, especially in the inside-left pocket. But what about out of possession? He does not have the engine of Kevin De Bruyne at his peak, or indeed Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard.

Chelsea cannot afford to carry a player in a central zone who does not switch on when the ball is lost. Félix could be asked to defend alongside the centre-forward in a 4-4-2, as Fernández did against City, but this then leaves just two midfield slots free for Chelsea’s host of other players.

In truth, none of these options look optimal for Félix or Chelsea, but then very little about this transfer makes sense.