Maresca makes big claim about planning key player position change “since day one” | OneFootball

When we saw the lineups for tonight’s game against Copenhagen in the Conference League, we pointed out right away that Reece James was going to be in midfield, and how this showed a huge amount of trust in him from manager Enzo Maresca.

Well, James repaid that trust. He banged in a lovely finish just after half time to give his team the lead and played out a full 90 minutes.

Speaking after the game, Enzo Maresca was glowing with praise for his captain:

“We know how important he is for us. He’s our captain, a fantastic player. We need him fit, so that is our duty, our target because for sure he is going to help us,” the manager said.

“He can play in many positions because the good players can play in many positions.”

Enzo Maresca makes really interesting revelation about his appointment at Chelsea

Reece James celebrates after a big win. (Photo by Patrik Lundin/Getty Images)

Going into more detail, Maresca really surprised us with how keen he was on the idea of James keeping his midfield role. He revealed that he had been talking about it with the academy product since the day he was appointed as manager:

“You can ask Reece, when I signed for Chelsea, the day after I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder. I see Reece as a midfielder. Since day one. I sent him a clip when he was on holiday about how he can be a midfielder. He has played in full-back, central defender, so the main target for us is to keep him fit.”

In terms of keeping him fit – we’re not sure playing him for the full 90 minutes tonight is the right way to go about that. Malo Gusto going off didn’t help, but the lack of cover in central midfield is now threatening James’ fitness as well as usual pair Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.