Chelsea’s modern fullback: What’s next for Reece James?

The good and the bad

James’ skillset has, so far, translated to all the positions he has played in. His unique blend of strong upper-body strength and pace makes him a threat both ways, which means, either in an attacking or a defensive duel, James is likely to come out on top. Opposition defenders usually find it extremely hard to take the ball off of him. At the same time, he uses his physicality to brush attackers off the ball with ease.

The youngster’s ability to win duels against attackers, or keep the ball to himself, is difficult to back by numbers. Data on defense is often skewed by the team’s playing style and how much of the ball it actually sees during a game. For example, a team that remains on the back foot has more opportunities to execute a defensive action, but that doesn’t necessarily determine its ability to deal with the opposition’s threat. Similarly, skills such as positioning, awareness and the ability in one-on-one duels are difficult to judge purely on stats.

Luckily, Smarter Scout rates players from 0-99 based on their actions on the pitch, the frequency of those actions, and their ability pertaining to those actions. The site has weighted duel ratings to measure a player’s ability based on the duels they win or lose against the level of opposition. James’ skill in ground duels—both in and out of possession—is rated highly by the website’s algorithm, while his ball retention across all positions (RB, RWB and RCB) is over 90. That gives us some measure as to how good the youngster is in defense.

James is a threat going forward too. As per fbref, the Englishman was among the top 10 percent of his positional peers over the last year for passes into the penalty area per 90 (1.76). Meanwhile, his one completed cross per 90 saw him rank in the top three percent in his position. He attempted nearly six crosses per match; his ability to whip the ball in from the wing, or simply lift it toward a danger zone from the inside channels, is a handy tool in the Chelsea attack.

The 21-year-old is still in his formative years, which means there is room for him to grow. However, he does seem to possess a good technique and a fundamental skillset that can enable him to occupy the right of the Blues’ defense for the next decade. That being said, James does need to work on his concentration. For example, Raheem Sterling ghosted past him on a couple of occasions in the Champions League final, although he made up for his lack of awareness with recovery runs. Furthermore, he gets caught playing out from the back at times and is prone to making bad passes under pressure. One of those passes was intercepted by Ayoze Perez in the FA Cup Final, which directly led to a goal.