Enzo Maresca recently shared his thoughts on Reece James’ leadership during his recovery from injury. Reflecting on last Sunday’s match at Anfield, where James made his first appearance of the season in a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool, Maresca expressed that he “expected more” from the Chelsea captain, especially in the leadership department.
When discussing James’ role while sidelined due to a hamstring injury, Maresca emphasized the importance of a captain’s presence, saying, “Most of the time when they are captain, they think that because they are captain they have more, ‘because I am the captain, I expect that you give me more’. For me, because you are the captain you have to give more. You have to give more than the rest.” He added that a captain should not feel entitled to give less just because of their title.
Although James put in a decent performance upon his return, it was clear that Maresca expected him to elevate his leadership qualities. “I expected from him, and his teammates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general,” Maresca noted.
While James missed Chelsea’s recent Conference League victory over Panathinaikos as he works on regaining his fitness, he is anticipated to play against Newcastle this Sunday at Stamford Bridge. Maresca took this opportunity to stress that the need for leadership isn’t confined to James alone. “He [James] is a reserved guy, but not only him,” he remarked. “I think we don’t have a proper leader. We don’t have those guys. Probably Tosin [Adarabioyo] is one of the guys that is. So the rest we need to build them.”
