Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca brutally calls out own player - 'I expected more from him'

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has confessed that he had 'expected more' from Reece James in terms of leadership. The Chelsea captain is currently recovering from his latest injury setback.

James made a comeback from a hamstring issue against Liverpool last Sunday, marking his first appearance of the season. However, Maresca has disclosed that the full back will not be able to participate in two matches a week for the time being.

The 24-year-old was absent from Chelsea's Conference League triumph over Panathinaikos on Thursday but is anticipated to play against Newcastle tomorrow. This comes despite Maresca's public criticism of his lack of leadership.

"I spoke with him and I expected from him more in terms of leadership, inside the changing room and for different kinds of things," he conceded.

"He's on the way, he's doing well, he's progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership.

"Most of the time when they are captain, they think that because they are captain they have more, 'because I am the captain, I expect that you give me more'.

"For me, because you are the captain you have to give more. You have to give more than the rest. And sometimes it's, 'okay, I am the captain I can give less', no.

"He's one of the captains and I expected from him, and his teammates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general."

Maresca also admitted that Chelsea are lacking any real leaders within the group, sparking concerns that this may hinder their strong start to the season across all competitions.

Maresca has urged James to improve his leadership skills, but has praised youngster Levi Colwill for his rapid development in that area, saying: "He [James] is a reserved guy... but not only him.

"When you don't have a proper leader, you need to build that.

"I think we don't have a proper leader, we don't have those guys. Probably Tosin is one of the guys that is. So the rest we need to build them.

"Reece is there, he's on the way but he's 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 [Colwill]. 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.

"We need as much as we can, then it's perfect. Marc Cucurella is one of the guys, so we need more and more.

"This something that also goes with the age. Probably in one or two years, three years some of them will be better in that.

"But, as I said, if they are not there we need to help them to understand, not only the football side, also leadership side that they need to grow."