- Reece James recently made his long-awaited return from injury for the Blues
- Enzo Maresca has now called on him to ‘give more in terms of leadership’
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Enzo Maresca has told Reece James he needs to become a better leader, with the Chelsea head coach revealing he ‘expected more’ from the 24-year-old captain.
James played for the first time this season last weekend, lasting less than an hour in their 2-1 Premier League defeat to Liverpool after overcoming his latest hamstring injury.
Chelsea’s staff have now decided that James’ body cannot cope with two games in a week, one of which the captain left at home for Thursday’s Conference League away trip to Panathinaikos.
Ahead of Sunday’s visit to Newcastle, Maresca lamented his lack of a ‘real leader’ as he publicly challenged James, saying: ‘I expected more from him in terms of leadership, in the dressing room. He is on his way, he is doing well, he is making progress, but I also expected more from Reece in terms of leadership.
“For me, because you’re the captain, you have to give more than the rest. Sometimes: “Okay, I’m the captain, I can give less.” No. He is one of the captains and I expected him, and his teammates expected him, to always give more in terms of leadership.”
Enzo Maresca has called on Reece James to ‘give more in terms of leadership’ at Chelsea
The full-back recently returned from injury during the defeat to rivals Liverpool
When asked how James responded to this private conversation, Maresca said, “Great, that’s why I said he’s on his way. He understands that we expected more from him. He is one of our academy boys, but this is one of the reasons why he needs to show more in terms of personality.
‘If you don’t have a good leader, you have to build one. I don’t think we have a good leader. Probably Tosin (Adarabioyo) is one of the guys. We have to build the rest.
“Reece is here, he’s on his way, but he’s not here. He has to make an effort for that. Levi (Colwill) probably wasn’t a leader at the beginning of the season, but now you can see he’s one of the guys that’s always talking. We have to build that.’
James is working his way up to full fitness and after completing the midweek trip to the Greek capital Athens, he was able to start against Newcastle. “It is important that he does not get injured again,” Maresca added.
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‘Every club has players who always get injuries, injuries, injuries. We have to find the right solution for him and try to help him. Probably the solution at this point could be to use it once a week. We want to use him every day because he is a fantastic player, but we have to adapt.
‘In football you never know. You can get hurt while walking, you never know. But we all agree that the solution for him now is to play one match a week. He agrees. He knows himself and agrees. Hopefully he can play more games in the future.’