Chelsea’s manager, Enzo Maresca, revealed that he has considered that the best position of Reece James was in the midfield “from day one.”
James fought for minutes in any position under Maresca this season. Such family injuries have limited the club captain’s participation, but when it has been available, the International of England has further aligned in one of the complete positions of Chelsea, his typical role for the team.
However, in each of the last two appearances of James, Maresca has begun its creative departure in the middle field. While this position switch led to a Defeat against Aston Villa At the end of last month, James returned to a central role for Chelsea’s trip to Copenhagen in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night. Blues pattern scored the Opening goal in a 2-1 victory.
“At this point, we use it as a midfielder and it is doing very well,” he did bad after the first triumphant of his 16 -year -old European tie. “When I signed with Chelsea, probably the next day, I sent him a video about watching him as a midfielder.
“When you see a player, sometimes you have to use imagination and imagine a player doing something. I always imagined that he behaved as a midfielder. I saw some of his games when I was on loan Chelsea In Wigan (2018-19) where he scored a fantastic goal of 25 or 30 meters as a midfielder. “
Maresca has not always been so praise for his captain. In October, Chelsea’s head Publicly demanded “more” of James regarding their actions off the pitch. According to the Italian coach, his warning was heeded. “But the best of reece right now is that he is helping the team with leadership and is growing very much since I mentioned that we needed it and this is important,” said Maresca.
James would not be trapped in his new role and would not be trapped in an encouraging physically: The defender has been available for 11 of the last 12 Chelsea games. “It’s always good to score and help the team and, luckily, we got the victory,” said the 25 -year -old. “We know it’s another huge game (next week), we have to win and we want to move forward and win this competition.”
Maresca has not enjoyed the best form at the head of Chelsea in recent weeks, supervising only two wins from his last ten games of the Premier League and one Departure of the Galling Cup against Brighton. However, after the first victory of the club since mid -December, the former Leicester City Chief wanted to focus on the positives of James’ performance.
“We know the importance of it for us,” Marsca concluded. “He is our captain, a fantastic player. We need to adapt, so this is our duty, our goal, because he will surely help us. He can play in many positions because good players can play in many positions.”
