Ange Postecoglou has cited James Maddison’s fitness issues as the reason behind his drop in form and suggested that the attacking midfielder is now showing signs of being fully fit.
Since returning from an ankle injury that kept him out of action for three months, Maddison has looked like a shadow of the player than he was at the start of the season.
One can argue that the 27-year-old’s downturn in form is one of the main reasons why Tottenham have struggled to fashion chances of late, with the Lilyhwhites reliant on the England international to open locks for them.
The former Leicester City star was even left out of the starting eleven on a couple of occasions recently but Postecoglou insisted that the midfielder showed some encouraging signs in the 2-1 win over Burnley.
Is James Maddison getting back to his best at Spurs?
When asked about Maddison, the Tottenham head coach told Football.London: “Madders has had one of those seasons like a lot of our guys. When they’re at their best, you can see how impactful they can be on a game of football.
“I thought at the weekend especially he was right back at it – he was really creative, he was working harder and he looked fitter. There were a couple of runs that he made when they couldn’t keep up with him and that was him earlier in the year.
“It’s taken him a while to get back physically more than anything else to that level. It’s a big thing for footballers – we tend to focus on their technical ability and especially for guys like Madders they think that’s the most important part of the game.
“But if you’re not physically right – especially in the Premier League – you just won’t get away with it and it’s then taken him so much time to get back to that level because he has missed so much football. I think it’s fair to say he lost some confidence as well.
“But it’s fair to say that he was back to the levels we saw earlier in the year and when he’s at those levels he can hurt any team with his creativity and his ability to score and create goals. He’ll be very important to us tomorrow night.”
A few weeks ago, Alan Shearer remarked in The Rest Is Football podcast that the Spurs star might end up missing out on the England squad that will travel to the European Championship this summer due to his downturn in form.
Postecoglou admitted that being part of the Three Lions set-up is an added incentive for Maddison to finish the season strongly.
When asked about the Spurs number ten’s place in Gareth Southgate’s squad potentially being in doubt, the Australian responded: “I’m sure it is [an incentive] but you can’t just turn it in because you think something is important.
“You have to do it all of the time and all these other things take care of themselves. You can’t just say ‘I’m going to try really hard because I want to get into the England team for the Euros’.
“You have to do the day-to-day stuff right. In fairness to Madders, he’s been a lot stronger recently because he has been able to get out there every day and I think we saw the benefits of that on the weekend.”
Spurs Web Opinion
One can tell that Maddison relishes the big stage and is keen to step up and be the hero in matches like this. He will be desperate to prove himself against City, especially given the criticism that has come his way over the past couple of months.
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