Player Watch Player Watch: James Maddison

[Stamford]

Not in top form but never "incredibly poor".

In my opinion yeah. Don't think he offered anything today.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

In my opinion yeah. Don't think he offered anything today.

He’s still tidy on the ball and got himself involved. He’s not putting chances on a plate and his ball carrying isn’t at the forefront at the moment but his poor form has been exaggerated imo

 

[joey55]

Personally I don't think it should be one or the other with Maddison and Lo Celso. I think players like them make each other better. So often our play breaks down because of a poor touch or not seeing the right pass. It frustrates the hell out of me as it's the key difference between us and the very best teams. I think way too much emphasis is put on needing a certain type of player to play a specific role but I think that is based on limited resources, in terms of talent, but times have changed. Thesedays due to changes in the amount of foreign players allowed and massive financial inequality, top teams can own several top class, athletic players. Maddison and Lo Celso aren't Rafa VDV types. In fact, I'd go as far to say that Gio's best position is actually as an 8. In games when we are going to be stretched then I think Sarr's legs are a necessity. We need his box to box running. But when we are playing the likes of Luton at home, we should be passing and moving them to death. In fact, I'd even like to try Bentancur is Bissouma's role.

 

[Locotoro]

Burke (I thought it was Burke) did the same with Gio when he came on, just seemed to move it on a bit quicker than Madds.

Burke got subbed at HT as he was on a yellow. The replacement was far more static and both a Maddison and GLC had much more space to operate

 

[Krafty]

We’ve lost a little bit in midfield, I wonder if Sarr being given more license to get forward has exposed Bissouma and stunted Maddison a bit?

I thought Madders was dropping deep to get things going, because no one else was. I think earlier in the season he was more prevalent in the final third, then in the Bournemouth game he started coming really deep, and we just having perfected the moments when he should and should not do that. Maybe Gio starts on Tuesday but I think Maddison will come good soon enough

 

[Locotoro]

We’ve lost a little bit in midfield, I wonder if Sarr being given more license to get forward has exposed Bissouma and stunted Maddison a bit?

I thought Madders was dropping deep to get things going, because no one else was. I think earlier in the season he was more prevalent in the final third, then in the Bournemouth game he started coming really deep, and we just having perfected the moments when he should and should not do that. Maybe Gio starts on Tuesday but I think Maddison will come good soon enough

I think it's more that he's being man marked by teams in a low block. Deki and Maddison had great early season performances when teams came at us. We had space to move in and we overloaded the box with ease. Now they are wise to it,they sit behind the ball and target our left side CB on their press (VDV and Dragusin) and try to force a mistake.


Bissouma has never been a DMC that you play to open up a defensive team, he's a guy that evades the press so when teams sit back he looks average. But against a team that presses high he can evade the press and make a pass to someone in space to cause damage.

 

[muppetman]

Constantly in the ref's ear all game. I think having someone highlight stuff is fine, but when it's just a constant whining then it's easy to ignore.

 

[spursgirls]

We’ve lost a little bit in midfield, I wonder if Sarr being given more license to get forward has exposed Bissouma and stunted Maddison a bit?

I thought Madders was dropping deep to get things going, because no one else was. I think earlier in the season he was more prevalent in the final third, then in the Bournemouth game he started coming really deep, and we just having perfected the moments when he should and should not do that. Maybe Gio starts on Tuesday but I think Maddison will come good soon enough

I said the same thing yesterday. Maddison was dropping deep to see the ball more but we lost his creativity further forward.

 

[sidford]

Could do with being "rested" against Newcastle on Saturday. So many misplaced passes in first half, he was way off it..
His "punch" on Yates wouldn't of even knocked over my 6 year old but it was a very silly thing to do, stupid to even give the ref a decision to make.
Like Sonny we need him back to his best v v quickly given our run In

 

[Whazam]

Could do with being "rested" against Newcastle on Saturday. So many misplaced passes in first half, he was way off it..
His "punch" on Yates wouldn't of even knocked over my 6 year old but it was a very silly thing to do, stupid to even give the ref a decision to make.
Like Sonny we need him back to his best v v quickly given our run In

He seems constantly annoyed since coming back. Seems to focus more on complaining than the actual football sometimes. And that punch was indeed extremely stupid.

Hope he snaps out of it soon. We all know how good he can be.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

There is probably a fitness/match sharpness issue but I also feel like there might be a little bit of him feeling like he’s undroppable. Which he is for Ange it seems. To me that is never a good thing, no player should feel like they are always guaranteed a spot. Idk maybe the amount of praise he got from the first half of the season caused him to be a little too relaxed or maybe it is just as simple as him not feeling 100% physically comfortable. Hard to tell.

In General it seems to take him more time to decide what to do with the ball which didn’t feel like the case at the start of the season. His passing in general is a lot looser than it used to be. That is obviously amplified by Gio whos game in general is more revolved around fast one touch passes to open up gaps.

I’m not particularly worried at all tho as it’s fairly common for a player’s form to dip during a season and he was playing at an extremely high level at the start. It was always going to be hard to maintain that level especially with his injuries but there is no reason he can’t get back to it. That being said I do think it might be worth starting him from the bench for a match or two to see if that pushes him to up his game.

It’s a shame Ange doesn’t seem trust Gio enough to start him over Maddison as I would say based on both of their current forms he deserves it. I just hope over summer we bring in a AM who Ange will trust to regularly rotate with Maddison if his form where to dip again.

 

[Jamturk]

His vision isn't great, there were a couple of times he received the ball on the turn centrally and didn't see the Sonny run.

Takes too many touches for me.

 

[bubble07]

Maybe the first 10 games he was playing above his usual level? We were saying we didn't think he was that good etc at the time

Although I did think he was more than ok today

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

There is probably a fitness/match sharpness issue but I also feel like there might be a little bit of him feeling like he’s undroppable. Which he is for Ange it seems. To me that is never a good thing, no player should feel like they are always guaranteed a spot. Idk maybe the amount of praise he got from the first half of the season caused him to be a little too relaxed or maybe it is just as simple as him not feeling 100% physically comfortable. Hard to tell.

In General it seems to take him more time to decide what to do with the ball which didn’t feel like the case at the start of the season. His passing in general is a lot looser than it used to be. That is obviously amplified by Gio whos game in general is more revolved around fast one touch passes to open up gaps.

I’m not particularly worried at all tho as it’s fairly common for a player’s form to dip during a season and he was playing at an extremely high level at the start. It was always going to be hard to maintain that level especially with his injuries but there is no reason he can’t get back to it. That being said I do think it might be worth starting him from the bench for a match or two to see if that pushes him to up his game.

It’s a shame Ange doesn’t seem trust Gio enough to start him over Maddison as I would say based on both of their current forms he deserves it. I just hope over summer we bring in a AM who Ange will trust to regularly rotate with Maddison if his form where to dip again.

Completely agree with every word of this, winner 100x.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

He seems constantly annoyed since coming back. Seems to focus more on complaining than the actual football sometimes. And that punch was indeed extremely stupid.

Hope he snaps out of it soon. We all know how good he can be.

He seems a frustrated man at the moment with his own performances, could be he’s not feeling 100% physically still or who knows these are humans, he could have something off the field going on which we don’t know about which is transfering into some negative energy on the pitch / frustration.

He could just simply be a little off form which happens to a lot of attacking players.

Love the bloke so let’s just roll with it although for me if he’s fit GLC does deserve a start at some point soon over madders, but I also get why Ange is being so loyal to Maddison .

 

[VoteMe4Prez]

He's a top quality player. He's not even been bad in the last few games and he's been playing much better in 2nd half's of late. We need to be right behind the lad and he will get back to his levels

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Punch was stupid and he isn’t operating at the 9/10 level that he was early season but I thought he was decent enough today.

 

[Chimbo!]

There is probably a fitness/match sharpness issue but I also feel like there might be a little bit of him feeling like he’s undroppable. Which he is for Ange it seems. To me that is never a good thing, no player should feel like they are always guaranteed a spot. Idk maybe the amount of praise he got from the first half of the season caused him to be a little too relaxed or maybe it is just as simple as him not feeling 100% physically comfortable. Hard to tell.

In General it seems to take him more time to decide what to do with the ball which didn’t feel like the case at the start of the season. His passing in general is a lot looser than it used to be. That is obviously amplified by Gio whos game in general is more revolved around fast one touch passes to open up gaps.

I’m not particularly worried at all tho as it’s fairly common for a player’s form to dip during a season and he was playing at an extremely high level at the start. It was always going to be hard to maintain that level especially with his injuries but there is no reason he can’t get back to it. That being said I do think it might be worth starting him from the bench for a match or two to see if that pushes him to up his game.

It’s a shame Ange doesn’t seem trust Gio enough to start him over Maddison as I would say based on both of their current forms he deserves it. I just hope over summer we bring in a AM who Ange will trust to regularly rotate with Maddison if his form where to dip again.

Maybe I’m wrong but I genuinely think he’s played alright since he came back from injury albeit without the same goal/assist output. I think he does a lot for us in the build up as he takes the ball under pressure better than anyone in the squad. Today against Forest he was very good.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

His vision isn't great, there were a couple of times he received the ball on the turn centrally and didn't see the Sonny run.

Takes too many touches for me.

Oo I dunno about that mate he’s picked many a beautiful pass over the years and for us and England I think saying his vision isn’t great is a bit harsh

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Needs to learn how to dictate the game imo and make better decisions.

At vital times he takes too many touches when the ball should be played quickly and then at other times when he should slow it down he tries to force it and gives it away stupidly.

Could do with watching footage of Eriksen back in his Spurs days imo.