Chelsea: Enzo Maresca explains why Reece James did not start in Conference League final win over Real Betis
Enzo Maresca insisted he wishes he could start Reece James every match, but will not do so due to concerns over the Chelsea captain's injury record.
James has missed large chunks of recent seasons, with hamstring issues a particularly problem, and he was on the sidelines for almost the entirety of the first half of this campaign.
He has largely been available since then but Maresca has remained wary of James' workload and he opted to start the right-back on the bench in the Conference League final against Real Betis, three days after he played the full 90 minutes against Nottingham Forest.
James was introduced at half-time in Wroclaw with his side behind and played his part as Chelsea clicked into gear to win 4-1, lifting the first trophy of the post-Roman Abramovich era. Enzo Fernandez equalised and Nicolas Jackson put the Blues in front, before Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo added late goals.
Malo Gusto endured a nightmare 45 minutes in the first-half, giving the ball away for Betis' goal and regularly being caught out of position, but Maresca defended him as he explained the decision not to start James.
'I promise you, I would start always with Reece,' Maresca said.
'But I'm trying to protect him. He played more games this season than the last two, three years. He's happy, he knows that. He's a top player for us. It's like Cole [Palmer], the problem is we need to manage him.
'When we changed him, he said to me, 'boss don't worry, we're going to win the game'.'
On Gusto, the Chelsea boss added: 'Malo is one of my favourite players. The problem is the first goal we conceded, it was from his pass. He missed the pass.
'They are young. They don't understand that if you [make a] mistake, it doesn't matter. You have to continue. When we lost the ball and conceded, he was out of the game. But he knows, for me Malo is a top player.'
James lifted the trophy for Chelsea, capping a successful season for the club in which a return to the Champions League was also secured.
The 25-year-old admitted it was 'devastating' not to start the final, but was confident he would still have a key role to play.
"Of course it is devastating to know you are not starting in a final,' James said.
'I want to play every game but it was the manager's decision. Once he made the decision, I had to move on and accept it and be ready when I was needed."
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Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
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At the other end of the spectrum, more than 80,000 watched Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atletico Madrid at the massive Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. The opening week for the monthlong tournament across the U.S. has seen some wildly fluctuating attendances. Orlando attendance is uncomfortably low The Mamelodi Sundowns and Ulsan HD game stands out as the low point so far for FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, who is banking on the Club World Cup becoming one of the most popular and valuable competitions in sport. So sparse was the crowd that the word 'ORLANDO' — spelled out in yellow seats on one of the main stands at Inter&Co Stadium — was almost completely unobstructed. Crowd control stewards stood by the sidelines and monitored vast areas of empty spaces in the 25,500-capacity venue. The home of MLS team Orlando City — among the smallest stadiums chosen to host games for the tournament — was still massively oversized for the match, even with ticket prices falling to $23. A group game between largely unheralded teams from South Africa and South Korea was never likely to be a big seller. And storms, which forced kickoff to be delayed by more than an hour, may have led to no-shows. Still, it was an uncomfortably low turnout and one of three games in the opening week that drew less than 10,000 fans. Not even Chelsea, Messi, MLS can pack Atlanta There were also swathes of empty seats for Chelsea's game against L.A. FC in Atlanta. It was an afternoon kickoff on a weekday, but one of the Premier League's most popular teams vs. an opponent from MLS couldn't manage to fill a third of the 71,000-capacity stadium, with 22,000 fans showing up. 'I think the environment was a bit strange. 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Kane calls Hard Rock Stadium a 'hostile' scene Numbers in Miami have been good — nothing lower than 55,000 and topping out at a near-capacity 63,587 for Bayern Munich vs. Boca Juniors. Bayern forward Harry Kane described the atmosphere inside a stadium dominated by Boca fans as 'hostile.' Crowds have still come to Miami in a week when the Florida Panthers were playing in the Stanley Cup Final. Boca and Real Madrid fans queued up for hours in sweltering heat after arriving early for games. Largest cup crowd was at the Rose Bowl The biggest crowd of the opening week was 80,619 for PSG vs. Atletico Madrid in L.A. For context, that is just short of the 84,163 who watched the English FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium and well above the 64,327 attendance for the Champions League final — European club soccer's biggest game. 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There is still uncertainty over how much of an appetite there is among fans for another elite soccer tournament and it was unknown how many would be prepared to follow their team to the U.S. According to FIFA, the biggest take up of tickets from abroad was from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Perhaps more significant is what this tournament says about the men's World Cup, which is largely being staged in the U.S. next year. The Club World Cup could be seen as a gauge of how America's interest in soccer has grown since last hosting the planet's biggest sporting event in 1994. In that sense, it's not just about statistics, but optics as well. Which is why FIFA will hope to avoid a repeat of the scenes at Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Ulsan HD. ___ AP reporters Jackson Castellano in Orlando, Florida, and Allyn Tucker in Atlanta contributed. ___ James Robson is at ___ AP soccer:
