Enzo Maresca gave a press conference last night where he spoke quite a lot about Reece James, in very frank terms about his leadership skills and captaincy.
But along with the personal stuff, there was football in the discussion too. Maresca pointed out that he was still working with his team to get James adjusted to the football they’re playing and his position in that, given how much time he’d missed.
“We would like to use Reece James every day because he’s a fantastic player but we need to adapt. We need to find the right solution for him and to try to help him.”
This is interesting, because it makes it suddenly sound slightly doubtful that James will be starting on Sunday afternoon, a belief that was previously pretty widespread when Marc Cucurella started in midweek and it seemed that Gusto on the left, James on the right, as we saw at Anfield last week, could be maintained for a second try.
It didn’t really seem to suit Gusto, and James was rusty. Cucurella also seems to have Maresca’s trust. The pendulum now seems to have swung back in that direction – the Spaniard to play on the left, Gusto the right. James waiting for the second half to come on and try to make an impact. It’s not a bad solution at all.
The alternative James plan – start your stars
If Maresca is just talking about James fitness – well, he played 50 minutes last week and could surely start again on Sunday after a healthy break. Then it would be Gusto vs. Cucurella for the left back slot. Given Cucurella is a natural there and Gusto didn’t look great, it would be a tight contest.
Maresca’s full back selection this weekend is really something that could tell us a lot about his plans for the future.
