He did give the ball away cheaply a few times, mainly early, and ran into a few alleys in attack. In spite of that, he was just what the doctor ordered in our midfield, a more engergetic partner to yaya who can really play the ball. The way he kind of glides past other midfielders is a joy to watch, and it really opens up the attack quickly when you've beaten a man like that. He was also interchanging with Yaya quite well as the match went on, early on it looked like he and Yaya were competing for the same space a bit too much. Once they sorted it out we started to have multiple layers of passing available, which got us forward quickly and caused the toon to really struggle.
Even when we got stuck in our pass it between the defenders and holding midfielders routine, Fernandinho was moving the ball quickly so as to make it seem like it might actually bear some fruit. Some of the longer passes on display from both Fernandinho and Yaya were sublime. I'm quite excited about this partnership, and think Fernandinho was very good in a match he didn't actually play to his best in.