Per Postecoglou, “extremely intuitive” The Spurs star is set to start against Crystal Palace because he is quick to pick up tactical knowledge.
While Maddison’s quality in the final third was quite evident to anyone who watched him at Leicester City, the 26-year-old has seemingly evolved as a footballer since making the switch to Tottenham.
He is now often seen dropping deep and receiving the ball from the Spurs centre-backs to help the side progress the ball high up the pitch, which is not something we saw the England international do in the past.
The former Foxes star has also demonstrated his ability to read the game well and win the ball high up the pitch as we saw at the Emirates for Tottenham’s second goal.
(Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
James Maddison soaks up Spurs tactics like a sponge
Postecoglou has now admitted that the attacking midfielder takes in more information than most as he wants to understand what he can do to help the team.
The Spurs head coach told Football.London about Maddison: “He’s very intuitive around the game and at understanding the game.
“For all the players, we try to provide a framework of education where we give them information to improve them as individuals but some of them take them in a more broader concept of the team aspect, and Madders is one of those.
“He takes the information but just from an individual aspect but how it can help the team. The goal he scored the other night came not from his individual ability but just from him working hard. He pressed two or three times. That’s a conscious thing he has to do.
“That’s not just about him being a good footballer, that’s him as an individual saying I need to do this because I think the team will benefit. And ultimately he benefitted from it because he scored the goal. But if he didn’t someone else would have, like we did for Sonny’s goal.
“So I think he’s one of these players that looks at it from a broader perspective, not just how it can help him as an individual but how it can help the team evolve into the team we want to be.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I have been surprised by how good Maddison has been off the ball. The attacking midfielder leads our press at times and evidently has an excellent engine. Despite his tireless work out of possession, he still has the composure to make the right decisions when he gets the ball.
