Enzo Maresca compares one of his star players to Leicester defender | OneFootball

The two and a half weeks since Chelsea last played a match feel like an eternity, so here’s a little refresher on what was going on at the club before that.

There were a couple of culture wars going on – with one being about Enzo Maresca’s style of play, and the other about his decision to use Reece James as a midfielder.

England manager Thomas Tuchel isn’t so sure about the experiment, as he revealed during the break as James joined up with England. But maybe he hadn’t considered this particular angle. Speaking in his press conference yesterday, Maresca claimed part of his logic was protecting the 25 year old from injuries.

“In terms of data, you can see that when a full-back plays in the way they used to play, up and down, they [do that] much, much, much more [often] than to go inside, covering a bigger distance, for the amount of times they go up and down,” the manager explained.

“So for sure that way that we are using James, in some games, can help him.”

James compared to Leicester full back

Reece James speaks to the TV cameras.

Maresca also pointed out that this was a strategy he had used at Leicester last year with another injury prone player:

“Last year at Leicester we had Ricardo Pereira, that he potentially could be a top player for a top team, but because of his injuries… last year with us he played all the games, we changed a little bit and that works quite well. With James, it’s working quite well. But I said already many times, Reece with us is playing right full-back, left full-back, midfielder – different positions.

James has had proper 5 injuries in the last 5 years, so we’d do anything to protect him. But using him in a position where he’s not as effective just doesn’t seem the right solution to us. Better James plays just 20 games a season at right back than 40 in one where he’s not as effective.