Chelsea have beaten Manchester City to lift the Champions League trophy this season and full-back Reece James was one of the standout performers for the Blues on Saturday.
After the match, everyone has been praising N’Golo Kante for his fine shift in midfield but pundit Rio Ferdinand has come out to shower praises on James for keeping a player like Raheem Sterling quiet for most of the game.
Before the start, Ferdinand had singled out Mason Mount and Foden as the two players who were likely to stamp their authority on the final but in his post-match analysis, the former Man United defender could not stop gushing over Reece James.
“I have to talk about someone like Reece James because he’s a product of the youth academy,” he said, as quoted by Football London.
“We spoke about a lot of players, Mason Mount and [Phil] Foden before – and rightly so – but there have been question marks about him (Reece James), not only in a Chelsea shirt, but in an England shirt, should he be involved or not because there’s a great amount of right-backs in this country.
✅ Most tackles made (7)
✅ Most clearances (5)
✅ Locked down the rightReece James also deserved a Player of the Match award 👏 pic.twitter.com/8F7uyBmGCz
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 30, 2021
“He’s performed today on the biggest stage and he was the standout. Immense.”
Reece James might have thought that he would be marking Phil Foden on the right-hand side so the inclusion of Raheem Sterling must have surely been a bit of a surprise for the wing-back.
Sterling is a much more experienced player than Foden so he had the capability of pocketing James really easily. But, in the end, it was the right-back who came out with flying colours.
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According to Whoscored, Reece James was dribbled past only two times and he made as many as seven successful tackles during the final. The 21-year-old also made five clearances and these figures were more than enough to award him the second-best rating amongst the Chelsea players(7.7/10).
Gareth Southgate has a real dilemma about his right-back position for the upcoming Euros but this performance from Reece James has surely put him in the driver’s seat for a starting role for England in the coming weeks.
