‘I always saw Reece James as a midfielder!’ Maresca reveals conversations with Chelsea captain over new role | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has revealed the nature of conversations he’s held with Chelsea captain Reece James about undertaking a new role in midfield.

James opened the scoring for Chelsea as they defeated Copenhagen 2-1 in the first leg of their Conference League, last-16 tie.

And Maresca admitted he has always seen the 25-year-old as having the ability to step further forward and dictate games from midfield.

“You can ask Reece [James], when I signed for Chelsea, the day after I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder,” Maresca highlighted.

“I see Reece as a midfielder. Since day one. I sent him a clip when he was on holiday about how he can be a midfielder.

“When you watch a player you sometimes need to use imagination and imagining a player doing something. I watched some of his games when he was on loan at Wigan where he scored a fantastic goal from 25 or 30 metres.

“He has played in full-back, central defender, so the main target for us is to keep him fit. He can play in many positions because the good players can play in many positions.

“We know how important he is for us. He’s our captain, a fantastic player. We need him fit, so that is our duty, our target because for sure he is going to help us.”

“The best thing about Reece [James] at the moment is he is helping the team with leadership.”

Chelsea made hard work of their trip to the Danish capital and were forced onto the back foot for the final minutes but Maresca was happy to see his players fight through the difficult moments, with attentions now turning to Leicester on Sunday.

On the defensive sloppiness, Maresca added: “We can avoid that. It’s football, it can happen. Now 90 minutes have finished and now we have 90 more minutes against them.

“If we can win against Leicester on Sunday, we can do one more step to finishing in the Champions League… top four or top five, I do not know.”