Chelsea may be faring pretty well under their new manager, Enzo Maresca, but the Blues boss has very publicly called out Reece James and revealed how disappointed he is in his captain's contributions.
At the end of last season, it appeared Chelsea had just started to click under Mauricio Pochettino, but the Argentinian manager parted ways with the club. Chelsea made the somewhat surprising decision to appoint Maresca in his place, with the Italian leaving Leicester City behind to take on a new challenge.
Despite a number of new players arriving at Stamford Bridge, Maresca has very quickly got his team playing good football, scoring goals, and most importantly, winning football matches, but he has one big issue.
That issue is Reece James, and the apparent lack of leadership the Chelsea skipper has been displaying since Maresca took over at the club. Speaking to the press (via Kieran Gill) ahead of this weekend's action in the Premier League, Maresca made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the 24-year-old.
He said: "I expected from him more in terms of leadership. For me, because you are captain, you have to give more than the rest. ‘I am the captain, I can give less.’ No. I expected, and his teammates expected, to give always more in terms of leadership."
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James has only managed one appearance for Chelsea this season, a 53-minute outing against Liverpool last weekend. He has missed the rest of the campaign with a hamstring injury, as his ongoing fitness issues continue to cause disruption to his career and Chelsea's plans.
The right-back registered just 11 appearances last season with another hamstring injury and subsequent surgery leaving the London side without their captain for much of the campaign.
It is not known exactly how James is behaving behind the scenes, but clearly Maresca has not seen the kind of attitude he would want from a leader within the squad so far.
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Still, Chelsea fans were mightily impressed by their captain's big return last weekend, describing him as "different class" and "perfect" despite the defeat to Liverpool.
It remains to be seen how Maresca will handle this situation moving forward, and whether Reece James will show signs of improvement based on his manager's comments.
Topics: Chelsea, Reece James, Enzo Maresca
Jakob Barnes