Enzo Maresca slams Chelsea star for lack of leadership amid possible dressing room rift

Enzo Maresca has not held back in his assessment of Reece James following the defender’s recent return from injury.

The 24-year-old made his long-awaited return against Liverpool last weekend after being ruled out for the majority of last season.

Thrown straight into the deep end and asked to start against Arne Slot’s Reds six days ago, James was clearly off the pace and appeared a shadow of the player once tipped to become England’s first-choice right-back.

Enzo Maresca slams Reece James for ‘lack of leadership’

And speaking ahead of Sunday’s exciting matchup against Newcastle United, Maresca didn’t mince his words when discussing James’ first performance back.

“I expected from him more in terms of leadership, inside the changing room,” the Italian told reporters.

“He’s on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership.

“For me, because you are the captain, you have to give more than the rest. Sometimes, ‘OK, 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.”

Step up or risk losing captain’s armband

Going on to compare James’ mental attributes to the rest of the Chelsea squad, Maresca feels the Blues lack a ‘proper leader’ — potentially bad news for James, who was named club captain by Mauricio Pochettino before the start of last season.

“He understands we expected more from him,” the manager added.

“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.

“When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that. I think we don’t have a proper leader. Probably Tosin [Adarabioyo] is one of the guys that is. The rest, we need to build them.

“Reece is there, he’s on the way but he’s not there. He needs to make an effort in that one. Levi [Colwill] 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.”

Maresca’s recent comments are unlikely to go down well with the Chelsea defender and will fuel speculation over his future at the club.

Barcelona and Benfica have already been linked with surprise approaches with the former particuarly light in James’ position with Jules Kounde the side’s only senior recognised right-back.

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