Ange Postecoglou's decision to restore James Maddison to his Tottenham team against Manchester City proved to be a masterstroke. The midfielder made it a 28th birthday to remember with two goals in Tottenham's incredible 4-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium.
A regular in the team at the beginning of the season and playing a key role in midfield, Maddison was dropped to the bench for the Aston Villa and Ipswich Town fixtures at the start of November with Pape Matar Sarr making himself an undroppable in the middle of the park. Not many expected Maddison to regain his place in the team in Manchester at the weekend as Postecoglou was expected to go with Yves Bissouma, Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski as his midfield trio.
However, the Australian sprung a bit of a surprise by reinstating Maddison and moving Kulusevski to the right-wing despite his standout showings in midfield this season. That unfortunately meant that Brennan Johnson, Tottenham's top goalscorer in 2024/25, took his place on the substitutes' bench to begin with.
Keen to make up for lost time after only playing 14 minutes in total in the Villa and Ipswich games, Maddison made his mark on the contest with 13 minutes on the clock as he converted Kulusevski's inch-perfect delivery in style. Seven minutes later and he had another goal to his name after combining with Son Heung-min to delicately lift the ball over Ederson to double Tottenham's lead. It was the perfect way to mark his return to the team.
The 28-year-old continued to have a major say on the game as he contributed defensively, won a number of fouls and linked up with Tottenham's attacking players as they ran riot at the Etihad Stadium. It came as no surprise to see Maddison walk away with the man of the match award in what was undoubtedly his best performance in a Tottenham shirt.
Postecoglou was full of praise for his player when speaking in his post-match press conference. The Australian also admitted that his player was "ready for a big game" after making his mark in training during the international break after once again missing out on the England squad.
"I mean lean spell, I thought he was really good for us earlier in the season and then yeah, he had a couple of sort of flat games but I think the whole team has," explained Postecoglou. "I also believe there's more in Madders and, and I think that's on me. I always say, that's my role as a manager.
"If I'm not getting a maximum amount out of the players, the team against Ipswich, or individuals, then it's about sort of some self reflection of 'well, ok, can I do something different with them?'. But the thing about Madders was he obviously didn't go away on international duty.
"He had two weeks with us and the coaches worked really hard with him and he was working really hard at training and I could just see and said he was ready for a big game. He hasn't sort of lowered his ambitions or his kind of levels of the kind of player he wants to be and it's about us giving him that platform and it wasn't just his goals today.
"I thought he was really important for us in the build-up because he was always looking for it in tight areas and, and defensively, he worked really hard. So, yeah, credit to him. Like I said, I still think he's had a decent season, but it's like us as a team, we want to be more than that, we want to be more than just a decent team."
So what was the reasoning behind bringing Maddison back into the team and moving Kulusevski to the right flank? Postecoglou explained all when speaking to SPURSPLAY.
“I thought with the way the game was going to go that Madders was going to be important for us," he said. "Deki always causes City problems out wide. They want to defend one-on-one and Deki is unbelievable in terms of his running capacity when he’s faced up against an opponent.
"I thought today was about the collective, not the individuals, we had 14, 15 warriors out there who played with real courage and conviction and it’s credit to them.”
Postecoglou will likely make a couple of changes here and there for Thursday's Europa League tie against Roma but his Spurs XI to take on Fulham on Sunday could near enough be the team that was named for the Man City fixture. Maddison has done more than enough to keep his place in the side and that may result in Kulusevski remaining on the right-wing.
Despite his goal that completed the scoring at the Etihad, Johnson could have to contend with a place on the substitutes' bench to begin with even though he is currently leading the way as Tottenham's top goalscorer this term. The only other option would be for Son to drop down out of the XI but that seems highly unlikely given he is Tottenham's captain and what he offers in the final third.
If indeed Johnson is to watch on from the sidelines to begin with against Fulham, Postecoglou has a gamechanger at his disposal as there have been a handful of occasions in the past when the Wales international has scored after coming off the bench. All head coaches want selection dilemmas, which is exactly what the Tottenham boss has right now after Maddison's stellar showing at the Etihad Stadium.