Two reasons Chelsea will not repeat Reece James experiment on Tuesday | OneFootball

When the teamsheets came out for yesterday’s game against Aston Villa, there was quite the surprise as Chelsea listed 3 full backs.

At first the expectation was that Reece James would play as one of three central defenders, with Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella pushed further forward than usual. Then Enzo Maresca’s comments before the game confused things further, making it sound like Gusto would play as a winger and James as a right back in a 4.

In the end, neither was accurate – James played in midfield as part of a 3. Playing out of position he had a slow start, but he grew into the game, and having that extra body in there was quite effective, especially early on.

After the game, the Chelsea official website asked James about how he had coped:

“It was a completely different position to what I’m used to but that doesn’t worry me, it’s somewhere I have experience playing in so it wasn’t anything new to me,” Reece said of playing in midfield.

“Wherever the manager needs me, I’ll play there and give my all to help the team.”

Why Chelsea won’t repeat James experiment on Tuesday

Reece James warming up for Chelsea. (Photo by Chris Lee/Chelsea FC)

For all the positives of James in the mix, we have our doubts whether the experiment will be repeated on Tuesday, for a couple of reasons. Primarily because James played 90 minutes yesterday for the first time since November.

He was really physically struggling by the end, and needs a week off now to preserve his fragile body. If he features for more than 30 minutes on Tuesday we’d be stunned.

Secondly, of course, we’re playing the team rock bottom of the league and there should be no need for that third midfielder. We should be returning to the formation we’ve been playing all season, with James likely replaced by Jadon Sancho and the Blues going back to a shape featuring 3 attackers playing off a striker.