{"id":202967,"date":"2025-10-10T15:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202967\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:34:10","slug":"josh-acheampong-says-chelsea-have-a-defender-who-would-actually-make-a-great-striker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202967\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Acheampong says Chelsea have a defender who would actually make a great striker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chelsea youngster Josh Acheampong refused to pick himself when asked which defender or midfielder in the Blues squad would make the best striker.<\/p>\n

Josh Acheampong<\/a>, 19, has shown some great versatility since stepping up from the Chelsea academy<\/a> to the first team in 2025.<\/p>\n

So far, the England Under-21 international has played a mix of centre-half and right-back for Enzo Maresca\u2019s side. The biggest takeaway from the defender\u2019s game is his incredible composure and athleticism, which is why many people are tipping him for a huge future.<\/p>\n

Jason Cundy compared Acheampong to Rio Ferdinand<\/a> because of the way he can break forward with the ball, so the expectation on his young shoulders continues to grow.<\/p>\n

\"ReecePhoto by GLYN KIRK\/AFP via Getty ImagesJosh Acheampong thinks Reece James could play striker<\/p>\n

During a Q&A with Chelsea\u2019s official website<\/a>, Acheampong answered a series of intriguing questions.<\/p>\n

The youngster mentioned Blues captain Reece James<\/a>, 25, on a couple of occasions.<\/p>\n

Q: And which of our defenders\/midfielders would make the best striker?<\/p>\n

A: \u201cReece James, I think he used to play as a striker as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Who tends to be the first player out for training?<\/p>\n

A: \u201cReece James.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though James is now a right-back by trade, we\u2019ve seen him play multiple positions at Stamford Bridge. It turns out he was actually a centre-forward right at the start of his football journey as well.<\/p>\n

He strikes a ball as well as most players in the Chelsea squad, so we wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he could do a solid emergency job at the top end of the pitch.<\/p>\n

James admits he regularly played in midfield<\/a> during his academy days before transforming into one of the world\u2019s elite full-backs. We even saw him cover at centre-half during last weekend\u2019s Premier League win against Liverpool because of the injury crisis.<\/p>\n

\"JoshPhoto by Robin Jones\/Getty ImagesInjury news on Reece James<\/p>\n

There is always a big intake of breath whenever there is a mention of an injury for James because he\u2019s been very unfortunate in the last few years.<\/p>\n

The Chelsea skipper did pull out of Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England squad for the October international break.<\/p>\n

It has been described as a short-term injury for James<\/a> that has forced him out of the England group. We\u2019ll wait and see if he\u2019s ready for Chelsea\u2019s next match on 18 October away to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

In fairness, the defender has looked strong in 2025 and played a lot of football without any problems. Blues head coach Maresca deserves credit for the way he\u2019s managed him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea youngster Josh Acheampong refused to pick himself when asked which defender or midfielder in the Blues squad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,95147,95146,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-202967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-josh-acheampong","11":"tag-reece-james","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}