Asked if he ever thought about playing James in midfield during his time in charge of Chelsea, Tuchel said: “Very, very rarely with Chelsea. If you play a dominant match like today he can be in the last 20 minutes a hybrid midfielder where he comes from the left or right full-back position and helps in midfield to create an overload because he has the quality on the ball to accelerate with his passes, to play chip balls, to switch sides.
“He’s very confident. If it’s an open game and there are a lot of transitions through midfield, I’m not so sure if it would suit him perfectly.