Robbie Earle believes that one Tottenham player is not putting in the necessary work off the ball to justify his place in the side.
Ange Postecoglou’s masterstroke at half-time against West Ham
Postecoglou’s decision to take James Maddison off and bring Pape Sarr on at half-time has garnered a lot of praise, and rightly so since the substitution changed the game, allowing Tottenham to be even more dominant in the second period.
On the back of that game-changing decision, Maddison’s place in the Spurs side has been the subject of plenty of discussion, particularly since Dejan Kulusevski is now thriving in the attacking midfield role.
Robbie Earle’s surprising James Maddison claim
Earle has now become the latest to talk about the England international’s waning influence on the Spurs side, with the pundit suggesting that the 27-year-old is a luxury player who has to be carried by his teammate in some games.
He said on Two Robbies Podcast: “But let’s quickly just switch to Maddison thing. I mean, he came into the football club at the start, got a season and did so, so well, was a big part of what they were doing. You must feel like one of the first names on the team sheet. And then something seems to go wrong. It happened a little bit in his Leicester days.
“There are moments when in big games you never saw him. And then he seems to have had a moment again where, you know, the team balance looks better. Now, the problem with James Maddison, and he’s such a technically gifted player, that if he’s not making goals, scoring goals or dominating the game for you, there isn’t an awful lot else.
“And in modern-day football, we used to have, we used to have players in a Wimbledon team where we were all at it. But every now and then the gaffer would bring in a player who was a bit, let’s say, luxury, where he wouldn’t have to do quite so much work, but you better cross and do this and do that.
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“I get the sense James Maddison is that guy, but modern-day football doesn’t allow luxuries any more, it doesn’t allow you to carry any passengers. The best teams in the league don’t carry any passengers. You still have to do your hard work and your defensive stuff.”
Is the criticism of Maddison fair?
The discourse around Maddison over the last few days is another example of the typical knee-jerk, reactionary nature of the 24-hour football news cycle.
It was only a few weeks ago that many were pointing out that the former Leicester man was back to his best again and dictating games like we saw him do at the start of last season.