Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca confirmed Reece James is likely to be rested for Wednesday\u2019s trip to Leeds United as the club prioritises the captain\u2019s fitness. James, 25, has battled recurring fitness issues since the 2021\u201322 season and has been managed carefully by Maresca and the club\u2019s medical staff.<\/p>\n
Asked if James could reproduce recent heroics against Leeds after playing 82 minutes against Barcelona in midweek, Maresca was unambiguous. “No,” Maresca said bluntly when asked whether James, who also played 82 minutes against Barcelona in midweek, could repeat his heroics from the weekend against Leeds. “The reality is no.”<\/p>\n
On the broader approach to the England international, Maresca underlined the need for controlled load management. \u201cReece, now, his performance has been fantastic, top. Now, we have a game on Wednesday. For him, very good. We need to manage him, we need to control him, we need to control a little bit his situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The manager admitted selection is not straightforward. \u201cIt\u2019s complicated,\u201d Maresca admitted. \u201cI would like to start him every game, but we need to see.\u201d James\u2019s impressive showing as a central midfielder has intensified discussion over how often he should occupy that role, though his natural position remains right back.<\/p>\n
On James\u2019s versatility, Maresca was clear: \u201cHe can play in both positions,\u201d Maresca acknowledged. \u201cHe has been a full back his whole life. He has also played as a midfielder. He can be good in both positions. When we decide for him as a midfielder, we want physicality in the middle. It depends on the game plan, but he is doing very well in both positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Rom\u00e9o Lavia and D\u00e1rio Essugo sidelined and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo suspended, Andrey Santos looks the most natural cover in midfield. Maresca also named 19-year-old Josh Acheampong, trained as a right back but usually deployed as a centre back, as “one that can play good” in Caicedo\u2019s midfield position. Chelsea face a busy week that also includes matches against Bournemouth and Atalanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca says Reece James to be managed and is unlikely to start against Leeds after Barcelona outing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,702,172],"tags":[944,1140,1006],"class_list":["post-4834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-leeds-united","category-epl","tag-andrey-santos","tag-caicedo","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}