Defender Reece James made his first appearance for Chelsea this season, receiving significant attention from Blues fans.
James underwent surgery for a hamstring injury last season and subsequently faced fitness issues, which kept him out throughout the pre-season of the 2024/25 campaign.
However, after performing well during the recent FIFA Days, the 24-year-old star earned the trust of coach Enzo Maresca to start in the crucial match against Liverpool at Anfield last weekend. Many worried that James might not reach his peak performance after a long absence.
Contrary to those concerns, James received a lot of praise for his performance. He played as a right-back, participating for 53 minutes before being replaced by Renato Veiga.
Although Chelsea lost 1-2, the Blues fans still felt optimistic about James’s performance. One supporter wrote, “Reece James is truly on another level. If James is fit, I would choose Gusto to play left-back instead of Cucurella.”
Another fan commented, “Reece James was outstanding. He did an excellent job building the play.” A third supporter added, “It’s hard to believe Reece James has been out for 6 months. A fantastic performance. This was his first match back, and he played very well.”
According to statistics, in his 53 minutes on the pitch, James had 2/3 successful ground duels, 1 aerial duel won, touched the ball 61 times, made 1 interception, and had 1 tackle. His passing accuracy was an impressive 91%.
Before the match, coach Maresca explained that James would only be used once a week to manage his fitness, stating, “His body cannot handle playing two matches a week.”
In the press conference, he mentioned, “Perhaps the solution with Reece is similar to how we are managing Romeo (Lavia) and Wes (Fofana), which is to use them only once a week due to the current fitness reasons that prevent Reece from playing continuously.
We need to manage James carefully, just like we are doing with Wes and Romeo. This may be a temporary approach, but hopefully, in the future, we will be able to utilize Reece more frequently during the week.”