Chelsea: Enzo Maresca backs Levi Colwill to be future captain as Tosin Adarabioyo answers leader call | OneFootball

The young defender is stepping up as elder statesman Tosin make his presence known

Enzo Maresca has backed Levi Colwill to become a future Chelsea captain and revealed that fellow centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo has emerged as the most vocal leader in the Blues’s dressing room.

Defeats against Fulham and Ipswich, along with a goalless draw at Everton, have put an end to what Maresca always insisted was fanciful talk of an unexpected title challenge. Instead, Chelsea have slipped back into a top-four scrap and head to Crystal Palace on Saturday in need of a victory to put their campaign back on track.

Maresca’s squad is the youngest in the top flight and he has previously admitted there are a lack of natural leaders in his squad, with the Italian particularly critical of club captain Reece James.

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However, the 44-year-old insists several players - including Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez - are growing in stature, though he confirmed that James will continue to wear the armband on his latest return from injury.

Colwill, though, has been a near ever-present for the Blues in the Premier League this season and Maresca says the 21-year-old is also emerging as a senior figure on and off the pitch.

“I can see the leader day by day, since we started in pre-season, something that he can improve in terms of leadership,” Maresca said of the Englishman. “He is improving a lot.

“Levi, even if he is not wearing the armband, he is one of the captains and in the future, he could be a captain of this club. Since we started, he is improving a lot.”

We have different kinds of characters, the one that is most vocal in the dressing room is Tosin

Enzo Maresca

Colwill had formed an impressive partnership with Wesley Fofana at centre-back in the early part of the campaign, but the Frenchman is now sidelined with a serious hamstring injury which Maresca says could rule him out for the rest of the season.

Tosin, signed on a free transfer from Fulham last summer, has now stepped into the void and Maresca revealed the 27-year-old - the oldest player he has used in the league this season - is another whose leadership skills are becoming increasingly valuable.

“Sometimes you have different kinds of leaders,” he added. “Leaders that don’t talk much but when they do the rest listen a lot.

“We have different kinds of characters. The one that is most vocal in the dressing room is Tosin. But they are different all of them.”