Ruthless Maresca savages senior Chelsea star; names two teammates putting him to shame

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca pulled no punches when criticising the leadership capabilities of captain Reece James, while the manager also named two Blues stars who would make better skippers.

James was appointed Chelsea captain in August of 2023 following Cesar Azpilicueta’s move to Atletico Madrid. Unfortunately for James, persistent injury issues have greatly limited his impact from a playing perspective since taking the armband.

But according to his own manager, James has also struggled to make an impression within the dressing room too.

Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Newcastle on Sunday, Maresca said of James: “I expected from him more in terms of leadership, inside the changing room. He’s on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership.

“For me, because you are the captain, you have to give more than the rest. Sometimes, ‘OK, I am the captain, I can give less.’ No. He’s one of the captains and I expected from him, and his team-mates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership.”

When asked how James has responded to Maresca’s calls for greater authority, direction and personality, the Blues boss added: “Good, that’s why I said he’s on the way. He understands we expected more from him. He’s one of our guys from the academy but this is one of the reasons why he has to show more in terms of personality.”

Maresca went on to admit Chelsea “don’t have a proper leader” at present, though did name centre-backs Tosin Adarabioyo and Levi Colwill as figures who are stepping up behind the scenes.

“When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that,” continued Maresca. “I think we don’t have a proper leader. Probably Tosin (Adarabioyo) is one of the guys that is. The rest, we need to build them.

“Reece is there, he’s on the way but he’s not there. He needs to make an effort in that one. Levi (Colwill) probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking. We need to build that.”

Enzo Maresca reveals new Reece James selection plan

James made his first appearance of the season last weekend when producing an encouraging 53-minute display against Liverpool.

The right-back will hope to put his long-standing hamstring issues to bed once and for all and to aid that cause, Maresca revealed James won’t play twice a week for the foreseeable future.

“Every club they have some players that always get injury, injury, injury,” added Maresca. “We need to find the right solution for him and to try to help him.

“Probably in this moment, the solution could be to use him once a week. We’d like to use him every day because he’s a fantastic player but we need to adapt.

“In football you never know. You can get injured walking, you never know. But we are all agreed, that for him, the solution now is to play one game a week.

“He agrees. He knows himself and he agrees. Hopefully in the future he can play more games.”

READ MORE: The key contract details of every Chelsea first-team player: Expiry dates, weekly wages, agents…

Latest Chelsea news – Landmark transfer eyed / double January exit

Elsewhere, Chelsea have been named as one of numerous Premier League sides chasing Lens centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov, who has been described as a ‘monster’ by teammates.

If the move is made, Khusanov would become the first player from Uzbekistan to play in the Premier League.

In other news, Blues insider Simon Phillips claims Chelsea are sizing up a £100m double raid on Benfica.

Finally, TEAMtalk understands Chelsea are fully prepared to sanction exits for Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka in January.

Reece James’ injury issues laid bare