Reece James claims Chelsea didn’t “prepare right” in possible criticism of coaching | OneFootball

Reece James spoke to TNT Sport after the game tonight bitterly disappointed, almost unable to get his words out after a strong Chelsea side lost 2-1 to Warsaw.

Asked to sum his feelings up, he responded thus:

“Disappointment. It was a game we should have won. Something we failed to do tonight… it was a poor performance from the team today. It’s hard to put it down to one thing, maybe the 3-0 lead played a part. But there are no excuses,” the captain said.

Asked for more details about what went wrong, James was quite revealing, noting a couple of times that his team had “taken their foot off the gas”.

“Legia made it tough for us and we didn’t step up.” We are making progress but today that was for sure not progress. If anything a step back. Maybe we disrespected the competition today, this is football for you. If you don’t prepare right, you’ll pay.”

We’re not sure what he’s referring to with those preparation comments – did he feel the coaching staff didn’t give them enough intensity, or does he mean the players were complacent?

You can see James speaking in the clip embedded here:

https://x.com/footballontnt/status/1912982546280751132

James on Chelsea’s regression and fans’ frustrations

Enzo Maresca inlaid on Reece James. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

James also said that he understood the frustration of the fans:

“I understand the frustration to be honest, I understand fans come to the stadium to see excitement, goals. Today we were frustrating to watch.”

He’s talking about the team performance mainly, rather than the style, as we read it. But there’s no denying he’s indirectly hitting out at the slow football that he’s being asked to play too. Let’s hope Enzo Maresca gets the message. The fans don’t like it when we play like this, and the players don’t seem to either.