James Maddison decision bizarre as Tottenham XI confirmed v Chelsea
Ange Postecoglou has surprisingly dropped James Maddison from his Tottenham starting XI to face Chelsea on Sunday.
The midfielder has refound his form recently and, while it’s good news that Son Heung-Min is back in the team, it feels a bit harsh that Maddison is the one to have made way, indeed it feels bizarre.
The Englishman is one of four changes, which also see Christain Romero, Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro come into the team.
The team was confirmed by Tottenham’s Official X account (8 December) with Spurs looking to get one up over their London Rivals.
James Maddison dropped as Tottenham XI confirmed v Chelsea
Ange Postecoglou will no doubt be keen for his side to get back to winning ways after their surprise 1-0 defeat against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Thursday (5 December).
Going into the London Derby, it’s likely that the former Celtic boss would have wanted his team to have some momentum going into the clash due to the impressive performances of Enzo Maresca’s men this term.
While Son coming back into the line-up is no doubt good news for Spurs, it feels harsh on Maddison after his recent form.
As per Sofascore, in Tottenham’s recent Premier League clash against Bournemouth, in the 80 minutes he was on the pitch, he managed to maintain a pass accuracy of 83 per cent and had 70 touches of the ball.
Attacking-wise, he was fairly key with the Englishman making two key passes and having a shot in the clash.
He did manage to lose possession of the ball 17 times throughout the clash but when you’re as involved as Maddison is in games, you’re expected to lose the ball more than once.
However, defensively, he wasn’t the best with the former Leicester City man successfully completing just 58 per cent of his duels on the ground and none of his aerial duels.
He was also fouled six times and made one tackle throughout the game. Of course, Son is arguably the best player in Spurs’ ranks, but with the form Maddison has shown this season by contributing to nine goals this season, his absence against Chelsea feels somewhat harsh.
In other Tottenham news, the club have picked their favourite option to replace Postecoglou in a sack decision.
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