Enzo Maresca has urged Reece James to show more leadership as Chelsea’s captain and added that he believes his squad lacks a “proper leader”.
James was appointed club captain by Mauricio Pochettino ahead of the 2023-24 season following the departure of Cesar Azpilicueta to Atletico Madrid, but a combination of persistent injuries and untimely suspensions have severely restricted his opportunities to wear the armband on the pitch ever since.
Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat against Liverpool on Sunday marked James’ first competitive appearance of the season, and Maresca said the 24-year-old has responded well to being told that more is expected of him on and off the pitch as captain.
“I spoke with him and I expected more from him in terms of leadership, inside the changing room and for different kinds of things,” Maresca said of James after Chelsea’s 4-1 win over Panathinaikos in the Europa Conference League. “So he’s on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership.
“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. And sometimes: ‘okay, I am the captain I can give less’, no.
“He’s one of the captains and I expected from him, and his team-mates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general.”
Asked how James responded to Maresca’s message, Chelsea’s head coach replied: “Good, that’s why I said he’s on the way. He understands that we expected more from him. He’s one of our guys from the academy but this is one of the reasons why he has to show more in terms of personality.”
According to Transfermarkt, Chelsea’s average age of players used in the Premier League this season is 23.4, making them the youngest team in the division. Maresca admitted that youth is a significant factor in the shortage of leaders in his squad, but added that there are several players in his group who have the personality to grow into more influential roles.
“When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that,” he said. “I think we don’t have a proper leader. We don’t have guys, you can see them… probably Tosin is one of the guys that is. So the rest we need to build them.
“So Reece is there, he’s on the way but he’s not there. So he needs to make an effort in that one. The one that is doing fantastic in this kind of thing is Levi (Colwill). Levi probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking.
“We need to build that. We need as much as we have, then it’s perfect. Marc Cucurella is one of the guys, so we need more and more.
“This is something that also goes with age. Probably in one or two years, three years some of them will be better in that. But, as I said, if they are not there we need to help them to understand, not only the football side, but also the leadership side that they need to grow.”
Is this fair on James?
It should not come as a surprise that James is not a fully formed Chelsea captain. He is only 24 years old and has a naturally reserved personality. This is one notable difference between him and John Terry, who was given the armband by Jose Mourinho at the age of 23.
Another thing to note is that James’ two primary dressing room role models at the beginning of his senior Chelsea career — Azpilicueta and Thiago Silva — were also less vocal in the dressing room by nature. Azpilicueta took time to grow into the job of club captain when he was given the permanent responsibility in 2019, and ultimately succeeded admirably in doing so.
It is harder to show leadership when you are not playing and, as has often been the case with James, not even training with the main group. Injuries cannot be helped, but the two suspensions for straight red cards last season that set back James’ attempts to return to action certainly can be.
Chelsea have an indiscipline problem within this group of players that stretches back to Pochettino’s tenure, and setting a better example in this regard should be an easy fix for James.
The rest, as Maresca says, should come with time and the right support.
Does this show Maresca’s authority?
It certainly shows his honesty. There have been numerous examples of Maresca raising eyebrows with his straight talking this season — not least his admission after the Panathinaikos victory that Mykhailo Mudryk has been slower than most at Chelsea to learn what his head coach wants from him on the pitch.
Time will tell whether Chelsea’s players appreciate their head coach discussing their areas for improvement publicly, but projecting authority in the media is one way for Maresca to maintain authority over a squad which, as he points out, is not stacked with strong personalities.
Another way is to keep Chelsea’s performances and results on a positive trajectory, and Maresca has done a solid job of that so far.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
