Manchester City have set their eyes on Chelsea wing-back Reece James.
City needs a wing-back as Kyle Walker is aging. Walker, 32, has missed a total of 26 matches across all competitions this season. Moreover, he has 2 years of contract left after which City would not extend considering his age and fitness. Walker is in the twilight stage of his City career and hence his fitness levels have dropped. The arrival of Joao Cancelo from Juventus did not help his cause as Walker was down the pecking order.
Walker will be leaving the club in the near future. City needs a new wingback to provide some competition for Cancelo. City have identified Reece James as a perfect replacement. James is young and has had a phenomenal season for Chelsea. Moreover, he has the same amount of goal involvement as Jack Grealish in the Premier League this season.
Tuchel rates James highly
Thomas Tuchel rates Reece James highly and has spoken about finding the perfect role at the club.
“Would love to have two Reece James’ to have the problem (of best position) solved! It is 55% towards wing-back, 45% towards back three, It depends how the opponent plays against us, do we expect a lot of possession, how is their structure for offensive transition. For this can sometimes be helpful for Reece to play in back three and be the first guy to recover in transition and not be involved in attack to have his speed and physicality and protection of counter-attacks. These are the thoughts.
I am leaning more into that his very best position is wing-back where he is maybe more decisive, useful. It is more demanding. His next step is to be a regular, 50-55 matches player. From there we have to decide. Both positions are filled with top quality with him.”
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