James Maddison’s continued importance in the Spurs team

A look at Madders and his role at Spurs.

Transcript

00:00Finally, James, let's just look at James Maddison. I mean, obviously coming in two seasons ago,

00:08he was fantastic. He's definitely earned his move from that relegated Leicester side. Maybe

00:14confidence had knocked him with injuries and obviously not being picked for the European

00:18Championships as well with England. That obviously took a big effect on him as well, you could

00:22tell. But when he's playing for Spurs, Spurs look at a way more creative outfit going forward.

00:29When they look just overall at the better side completely, what sort of impact has Maddison

00:34had and how important is he in terms of the future and moving forward?

00:38Yes, I still think James Maddison's a crucial cog in the wheel. You can see, as you've just

00:45said there, Spurs are no doubt a better side when Maddison's in it. The creativity, ran

00:50the game against Alkmaar, really, really, really, really stepped up. Goals and assists

00:56wise this year, I think it's 18 goal involvements, 11 goals, 7 assists. He's still the talisman.

01:03He gets a lot of stick and I know he puts himself out there with the celebrations. He's

01:07quite flamboyant and he has gone missing at times this season. There's no doubt his form

01:12suffered. But again, he's been in and out of the team. He either starts games and doesn't

01:19finish or he doesn't start and he comes on for the last 20 minutes. So his rhythm has

01:23been severely hampered, I guess you'd say. Whether he's carrying an injury, I don't know

01:29whether I'm just trying to now just protect him for the Europa League. But he's now not

01:35got a game for 18 days, but he can't turn out Thursday, Sunday because he was on the

01:39bench against Fulham. You can see we line up with the midfield of Benton, Kirby, Souma

01:44and Gray. There's not a shred of creativity in there. So he's a lot picker. He's still

01:49a quality player, knows where the goal is. We need to be building the team around him

01:53because I still think he's got a heck of a lot to offer to Spurs. The numbers speak for

01:57themselves. When Andy had that really strong run at the start of last season, he was absolutely

02:03pivotal. The injury to him really, really knocked us. Has he quite been the same player

02:09since? Possibly not, but he's certainly shown flashes and certainly at the moment, he's

02:12getting no chance to build any rhythm, which again, you put down to the manager. I'm not

02:17sure if there's something behind the scenes there. He's publicly shown lots of love and

02:22lots of mutual respect, but he just feels odd and I just can't understand why he never

02:27gets through 90 minutes. So again, question marks for me over Andy there, but certainly

02:33Maddison, he's got a big future at Spurs and a little bit more quality around him and a

02:38proper system as well where you've not got the inverted full-back sat on top of him all

02:42the time. Give Maddison the space to operate, give him the keys to the pitch because you

02:47see the damage that he can do. The way he drops the shoulder, his movement, his eye

02:50for a pass, terrific on the dead ball and he knows where the goal is as well, as I say,

02:55so we need to be giving him all the freedom we can and building the team around him.