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Player Watch Player Watch: James Maddison

Albertbarich

Well-Known Member
Jul 4, 2020
6,411
24,125
Exceptional today. His ability to best people in tight spaces made a huge difference and he seemed to enjoy playing from the left.

I don’t like his post match interview though. Kept going on about shutting people up and people not seeing beyond goals and assists. Suggests to me a camp that is irritated by the criticism. I know some will make them absolutely right but as fans we have every right to criticise whilst we support and no I’m not talking about trolls on twitter or instagram. If madders had played like this the whole time he would be smashing it and probably be in the England first XI let alone the squad.

I love Ange, I love an in form madders but I don’t think a lot of the criticism has been unfounded.
 

matty74

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2013
1,545
4,107
That’s the sort of performance that got him in the England squad when he plays like this he’s up there with the best midfielders in the country
 

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
9,117
18,204
Exceptional today. His ability to best people in tight spaces made a huge difference and he seemed to enjoy playing from the left.

I don’t like his post match interview though. Kept going on about shutting people up and people not seeing beyond goals and assists. Suggests to me a camp that is irritated by the criticism. I know some will make them absolutely right but as fans we have every right to criticise whilst we support and no I’m not talking about trolls on twitter or instagram. If madders had played like this the whole time he would be smashing it and probably be in the England first XI let alone the squad.

I love Ange, I love an in form madders but I don’t think a lot of the criticism has been unfounded.
Today was him at his best, good passes, work rate and defensively very good. Needs to put the same effort in every week if he wants to shut people up
 

hughy

I'm SUPER cereal.
Nov 18, 2007
32,808
60,549
Probably the best individual performance I've seen from a Spurs player in a long time.

Apart from miscontrolling one pass from Vicario at the end of the first half he was literally perfect. Every time he got the ball he managed to either progress the play, win a free-kick, or set up a chance.

Today will do his condifence a massive amount of good. Play like this regularly and we finally have the world class playmaker we've been lacking for so long.
 

Ron Burgundy

SC Supporter
Jun 19, 2008
8,605
26,818
For those of us who weren't there - where did he play/how did he combine with Deki in the middle? Presume Bentancur was the deepest of the three, but how about those two?

Would love it if he and Deki formed a good creative pair in the middle
 

mil1lion

This is the place to be
May 7, 2004
44,608
86,524
Exceptional today. His ability to best people in tight spaces made a huge difference and he seemed to enjoy playing from the left.

I don’t like his post match interview though. Kept going on about shutting people up and people not seeing beyond goals and assists. Suggests to me a camp that is irritated by the criticism. I know some will make them absolutely right but as fans we have every right to criticise whilst we support and no I’m not talking about trolls on twitter or instagram. If madders had played like this the whole time he would be smashing it and probably be in the England first XI let alone the squad.

I love Ange, I love an in form madders but I don’t think a lot of the criticism has been unfounded.
The criticism has been over the top only a month into the season. We have a very fragile fanbase. I think it needs to be said tbh. We can't keep flipping from one emotion to another. It doesn't help the players at all. Criticism is fine at times but it doesn't take much for sections of our fans to get on their backs.
 

matty74

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2013
1,545
4,107
For those of us who weren't there - where did he play/how did he combine with Deki in the middle? Presume Bentancur was the deepest of the three, but how about those two?

Would love it if he and Deki formed a good creative pair in the middle
He played all over , but did most of his best work from the left side particularly in the 1st half .
His combination with bentancar was excellent. Lola broke things up and fed Maddison on numerous occasions.

Kulu played the further forward role and put a proper shift in . Probably should have had a goal or two . The trio in midfield worked very well today . But it was a depleted Brentford midfield missing Norgard and Jensen .

the bigger tests are ahead , but today was a decent performance that should have been over before the 88th minute
 

Nick-TopSpursMan

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2005
4,686
24,729
For those of us who weren't there - where did he play/how did he combine with Deki in the middle? Presume Bentancur was the deepest of the three, but how about those two?

Would love it if he and Deki formed a good creative pair in the middle

It was quite interesting because today I think Maddison was pulling wider to the left quite often and Son was drifting in to more central areas quite regularly. It seemed like a deliberate tactical tweak and it worked well.
 

BorjeSpurs

Well-Known Member
Jun 29, 2007
4,142
26,988
It was quite interesting because today I think Maddison was pulling wider to the left quite often and Son was drifting in to more central areas quite regularly. It seemed like a deliberate tactical tweak and it worked well.
Yep was just about to post this.

Son and Maddison's average positions compared to opening day.

Worked like a charm and brought the best out of all attacking players.

Brentford
1726948870977.png


Leicester
1726948824779.png
 

SA_Spurs

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
1,027
1,376
The criticism has been over the top only a month into the season. We have a very fragile fanbase. I think it needs to be said tbh. We can't keep flipping from one emotion to another. It doesn't help the players at all. Criticism is fine at times but it doesn't take much for sections of our fans to get on their backs.
the criticism has been over the top generally, just seems to be how our fans respond to a run of poor results or things not happening for us. Understandable in the broader context of lack of trophies, etc. In saying that, criticism on madders has not been over the top - he's got by with a very long run of poor games and general poor play since he returned from injury last season. This season, yes its been small sample of games but he was nowhere the the standard he showed today. Don't think it's fair to say fans have got on his back unnecessarily at all.

We all want to see the madders that showed up today - he absolutely bossed the game and showed his quality, class and top mindset for the entire game. It's the first time he's showed this since those first 10 games last season. He was my MotM today and long may be continue as when he plays like this, he lifts his teammates and the fans
 

mil1lion

This is the place to be
May 7, 2004
44,608
86,524
the criticism has been over the top generally, just seems to be how our fans respond to a run of poor results or things not happening for us. Understandable in the broader context of lack of trophies, etc. In saying that, criticism on madders has not been over the top - he's got by with a very long run of poor games and general poor play since he returned from injury last season. This season, yes its been small sample of games but he was nowhere the the standard he showed today. Don't think it's fair to say fans have got on his back unnecessarily at all.

We all want to see the madders that showed up today - he absolutely bossed the game and showed his quality, class and top mindset for the entire game. It's the first time he's showed this since those first 10 games last season. He was my MotM today and long may be continue as when he plays like this, he lifts his teammates and the fans
He hasn't been as bad as made out. He's had the odd poor performance but actually not had any poor ones yet this season. He's largely been having 7/10 performances. Certainly not a very long game run of poor games. It's just another exaggeration.
 

SA_Spurs

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
1,027
1,376
He hasn't been as bad as made out. He's had the odd poor performance but actually not had any poor ones yet this season. He's largely been having 7/10 performances. Certainly not a very long game run of poor games. It's just another exaggeration.
let's agree to disagree - we didn't buy him to pass sideways game after game. not sure how he rated 7/10 with very little output - he must've passed your eye test but clearly didn't escape many others. He has been ponderous in all games this season - he's seen a lot of the ball but did nothing with it. No shots, no chances created, nothing. Until today

Sounds like you'r the one who's exaggerated his constant 7/10 performances that delivered nothing for the team. I'll be curious who you believed scored less than madders during the run to the end of the season last year because we finished the season really poorly.
 

NickHSpurs

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2004
13,907
12,938
Probably his best performance for us. Thought he was exceptional.

Yep, similar to what I just said in the Bentancur thread though, the key is consistency and doing this in back to back games, not 1 in 5.

We don’t have enough world class players to carry inconsistent players anymore.
 

G Ron

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2012
2,232
8,628
He’s been good all season, works his nuts off and doesn’t stop trying to get on the ball to make things happen. He is key for us and I’m really pleased he gets the recognition today for a fantastic performance and a well deserved goal.
 

Tucker

Shitehawk
Jul 15, 2013
34,035
158,510
The criticism has been over the top only a month into the season. We have a very fragile fanbase. I think it needs to be said tbh. We can't keep flipping from one emotion to another. It doesn't help the players at all. Criticism is fine at times but it doesn't take much for sections of our fans to get on their backs.
This.

The problem with online fandom is a narrative can form about players based on not much at all. A narrative has formed around Madders because he didn’t get his form back last season. Now you have people claiming all he does is pass sideways. It’s bollocks. He’s been good in every game this season, constantly trying to make things happen and putting good balls into the box.
 

Kirito

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2013
5,658
11,480
If we can get a full season of Madders playing like this then we’ll be sniffing around the top 4
 
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