Chelsea made it three wins in a row in all competitions, beating Leicester 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, following their earlier two victories towards Copenhagen and Southampton.
Enzo Maresca’s facet have needed to adapt in latest weeks with the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke and Marc Guiu lacking in assault, but in addition Roméo Lavia lacking in midfield, which has led to some reshuffling from the Italian so as to strike stability within the facet.
This has seen Pedro Neto enjoying a brand new position as a centre-forward, and he is not the one one to function in a brand new place.
Chelsea has had gamers able to doing this up to now, stars able to being a Swiss military knife for his or her supervisor and providing tactical options when wanted in numerous positions. We notably noticed that underneath José Mourinho in his first spell on the membership the place Michael Essien coated two positions on the pitch.
Michael Essien’s distinctive position at Chelsea
Essien joined Chelsea in 2005, signing from Lyon for a price of round £24.4m.
In his 9 years on the membership, the midfielder was a rock, making 256 appearances, scoring 25 targets, offering 20 assists and totalling 20,303 minutes performed in complete.
The Ghana worldwide was often known as a central midfielder however had the flexibility and flexibility to resolve issues for his managers, enjoying as a right-back, left-back, right-midfielder, centre-back, left-midfielder and even as soon as as a centre-forward.
Underneath Mourinho at Chelsea, Essien performed quite a lot of roles, usually beginning some video games in defensive midfield and others at right-back when it was wanted.
So, why is that this related now? Effectively, Chelsea may have their subsequent Essien who offers Maresca the flexibility to problem-solve and make tweaks to the sport plan.
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Chelsea’s new Essien
When assessing gamers within the squad with comparable attributes, the tough-tackling Moises Caicedo instantly involves thoughts. Nonetheless, on this occasion, we’re not speaking about him.
Membership captain Reece James got here by the Chelsea academy, becoming a member of the Blues when he was six years previous.
The complete-back has already made 170 appearances for the membership, scoring 13 targets, offering 23 assists and totalling 11,683 minutes, now discovering himself because the skipper.
Sadly, the 25-year-old has been riddled with accidents all through his early profession, lacking 132 video games already, sustaining 21 completely different accidents and lacking a complete of 742 days.
This has seen a slight transition from the flying wing-back he as soon as was, as Chelsea at the moment are trying to prioritise his health and availability.
|
James in 2021/22 vs James in 2024/25 |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stats (per 90 minutes) |
21/22 |
24/25 |
|
Objectives |
0.19 |
0.24 |
|
Assists |
0.31 |
0.12 |
|
xG |
0.14 |
0.03 |
|
xAG |
0.26 |
0.04 |
|
Progressive Carries |
2.50 |
0.75 |
|
Progressive Passes |
6.88 |
5.52 |
|
Key Passes |
2.19 |
1.04 |
|
Tackles + Interceptions |
2.73 |
2.00 |
|
Blocks |
0.85 |
1.49 |
|
Aerial Duels Gained |
0.92 |
2.84 |
|
Stats taken from FBref |
||
Underneath Thomas Tuchel, you possibly can see in the course of the 2021/22 season the kind of participant James was, flying in attacking areas, offering attacking menace and output for the facet, while nonetheless having the athleticism to get better in defensive transitions too.
Nonetheless, Maresca has acknowledged, “I see Reece as a midfielder. Since day one“. This new position for James, whether or not he begins in central midfield, or inverts in there from right-back, permits him to remain extra central, having fewer high-intensity sprints within the recreation up and down the channels.
His management, physicality and comfortability on the ball are very helpful in central areas for this inexperienced Chelsea facet, as he supplies a key part to their backbone.
Joe Cole has even stated he needs “world-class” star, James, again within the England squad, off the again of his latest performances.
James coming into midfield in latest weeks has allowed Maresca to experiment on the proper facet of the pitch, permitting Gusto to overlap in attacking areas from right-back with the defensive solidity behind him of James, while additionally giving Enzo Fernández a extra free position in midfield, to roam and create in numerous areas.
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