Chelsea new captain “Revealed’ as Enzo Maresca questions Reece James’ leadership
Although Enzo Maresca acknowledged that Chelsea lacked a suitable leader, he cited Levi Colwill as a player who had made significant progress in that area.
Given the relative inexperience of the majority of the players, it is reasonable to accuse Chelsea’s youthful squad of lacking leadership.
At the end of the previous season, the Blues lost Thiago Silva, one of their few leaders, and it can be said that the Brazilian wasn’t truly replaced. His exit has created a significant gap on and off the field.
Maresca impressed by Colwill’s leadership capabilities
With a lack of leaders it’s down to Maresca and co to develop leaders from within the current squad and the Blues definitely have players who can step into that role, but it will take time for them to grow into it.
Club captain Reece James is now back, but in brutally honest comments Maresca admitted he expected more from the 24-year-old in terms of leadership.
You can see at times on the pitch a lack of leadership is an issue and it has cost Chelsea over the past 12 months, but Maresca has revealed that one or two players are showing signs they can become leaders.
“When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that. I think we don’t have a proper leader,” he told The Telegraph.
“Probably Tosin is one of the guys that is. So the rest, we need to build them. Reece is on the way but he is 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. 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.