Graeme Souness says Chelsea have ‘won the lottery’ with Ben Chilwell and Reece James following their 4-1 victory over Sheffield United on Saturday.
Frank Lampard’s side went behind at Stamford Bridge but ended up sealing the win by a comfortable margin with goals from Tammy Abraham, Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Timo Werner.
After the match, Souness hailed the performance of James but believes the 20-year-old’s impact at Chelsea has gone under the radar following Chilwell’s £50 million move from Leicester City in the summer.
And Souness believes James already looks ‘the finished article’ despite his young age.
‘This happens all the time when you buy a player for a lot of money, all the focus is on him,’ Souness told Sky Sports.
‘Ben Chilwell they spent £50 million on a full-back and all the focus is on him.
‘In Reece James, he’s a top player.
‘Given his age, he’s going to get better and better.
‘I’ve not talked about his strength, his pace, his delivery, and in terms of defending he looks like he’s got that already.
‘So you can only see him getting better and better.
‘I asked Ash [Ashley Cole] off-air ‘how strong is he?’ and there’s an incident if you see the third goal where it’s a free kick by Ziyech out by the right-hand side and Max Lowe comes in, fouls him, so it is a foul, and there’s a bit of a coming together and he just rag-dolls him, pushes him like a little boy.
‘You think of the modern game, if you’re playing against this Liverpool team one of the priorities would be trying to stop Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold because the full-back in a modern game isn’t a defender first and foremost, it’s someone who can do a bit of defender but gets up the pitch and when he gets into the attacking third he can deliver on it. When you get someone who can defend then what a real bonus that is.
‘I think Reece James is all of that. I think he’s got absolutely everything in his game. So for Chelsea it looks like they’ve won the lottery in the full-back positions.
‘He looks like the finished article already at 20.’
Follow Metro Sport across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
0 Commentaires