Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca revealed that he has considered Reece James’ best position to be in midfield “since day one”.

James has struggled for minutes in any position under Maresca this season. All-too familiar injury issues have limited the club captain’s involvement but when he has been available, the England international has most commonly lined up in one of Chelsea’s full-back positions – his typical role for the team.

However, in each of James’ last two appearances, Maresca has started his creative outlet in midfield. While this positional switch led to a defeat against Aston Villa at the end of last month, James returned to a central role for Chelsea’s trip to Copenhagen in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night. The Blues skipper scored the opening goal in a 2-1 win.

“At this moment, we are using him as a midfielder and he is doing very well,” Maresca beamed after the triumphant first leg of their European last-16 tie. “When I signed with Chelsea, probably the day after, I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder.

“When you watch a player, you sometimes need to use imagination and imagine a player doing something. I always imagined him behaving as a midfielder. I watched some of his games when he was on loan from Chelsea to Wigan [in 2018-19] where he scored a fantastic goal from 25 or 30 metres as a midfielder.”

Maresca hasn’t always been so full of praise for his captain. Back in October, the Chelsea boss publicly demanded “more” from James in terms of his actions off the pitch. According to the Italian coach, his warning was heeded. “But the best thing about Reece at the moment is he is helping the team with leadership and he is growing a lot since I mentioned we needed him and this is important,” Maresca noted.

James wouldn’t be drawn on his new role or get caught up in an encouraging run of fitness – the defender has been available for 11 of Chelsea’s last 12 matches. “It’s always good to score and help the team and thankfully we got the win,” the 25-year-old said. “We know it’s another huge game [next week], we need to win and we want to advance and win this competition.”

Maresca has not enjoyed the best run of form at the helm of Chelsea in recent weeks, overseeing just two wins from their last ten Premier League games and a galling FA Cup exit against Brighton. Yet, after the club’s first away win since the middle of December, the former Leicester City boss was keen to focus on the positives of James’ performance.

“We know how important he is for us,” Maresca concluded. “He’s our captain, a fantastic player. We need him fit, so that is our duty, our target, because for sure he is going to help us. He can play in many positions because the good players can play in many positions.”