A look at Madders and his role at Spurs.
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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.