“How can you ask your players to do that?” – Former Blue accuses Maresca of being “back in 1985” | OneFootball

While John Obi Mikel is dominating proceedings at the moment, he’s not the only former Chelsea player to have some hot takes on the current team to fire off.

Like the rest of us, he was pretty dismayed but the performance against Arsenal, another of his former clubs, last weekend.

He took particular issue with the way that Reece James was used as a midfielder in the game:

“It was man-to-man everywhere on the pitch, I was surprised that Reece James played as a midfielder and it was like being back in 1980. We are in 2025, how can you ask your players to do that? The defenders Benoit Badiashile and Levi Colwill looked scared on the ball and with more pressure from Arsenal they might’ve scored the second goal, the goal they did score was from a corner,” Gallas said in quotes picked up by Goal.com.

“For me, it was boring, especially for a London derby. I played so many of those games and it was more intense. Fans want to see the players fighting, running, and challenging, but nothing happened.”

Maresca’s odd James decision puzzles ex-pros as well as the average punter

Reece James and Enzo Maresca laughing in training.

Well we’ve got bad news William – you might have to get used to this James in midfield idea. Maresca said after he first deployed it a couple of weeks ago that it was something he foresaw James doing from the moment he took the job as Chelsea coach little under a year ago.

It’s bizarre to us on two levels – not only does it put James into a position he’s unfamiliar with, more importantly it takes him out of a position he’s world class in. We were crying out for some width and attacking intent down the right – but our player best able to provide it was stuck in the middle of the pitch.