James Maddison will be disappointed after Tottenham v Burnley, Paul Merson left wanting more
James Maddison should be disappointed with his performance despite Tottenham claiming a 2-1 victory over Burnley on Saturday (11 May).
With Burnley fighting for Premier League survival, they took a surprise lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium through Jacob Bruun Larsen before Pedro Porro’s equaliser.
Maddison eventually assisted the winning goal as Micky van de Ven planted a strike into the bottom corner, though the provider will still have left the field with more expected of his performance.
The 27-year-old had a brilliant opportunity to notch his fifth Premier League goal of the campaign but Arijanet Muric denied the shot with a 0.51xG, as per FotMob, prompting Paul Merson to comment on the moment.
Speaking live via Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday (11 May, 4:20pm), he said: “Maddison gets the ball, plays a quick one-two and he’s away down the left-hand side.
“Now he needs to pick someone out – he’s got Son in the middle, Kulusevski in the middle, but he goes to take a shot.
“He pulls it back onto his left, leaving himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, who comes out and makes himself big – it’s a very good save. Maddison should have scored, but he doesn’t.”
James Maddison disappoints despite vital Tottenham victory v Burnley
With a reasonably high xG on the shot, and it being on target, Maddison should be pushing himself harder to score another goal this season.
The creative midfielder has four league goals so far but has only netted once since October, scoring in the 4-0 win over Aston Villa in March.
And delving deeper into his general performance against the Clarets, his shooting is not the only problem to emerge from the match. With 33 per cent accuracy in his crosses, he was extremely wasteful. [FotMob]
While he did win 100 per cent of his tackles, Maddison managed to lose three ground duels and picked up a yellow card for one of his two fouls.
The 27-year-old was a regular source of goals during his time with Leicester City, scoring 55 in 203 appearances but, ranking in the bottom 35 percentile for non-penalty goals, those numbers have dipped considerably. [FBref]
Of course, with the number of attacking talents in Ange Postecoglou’s squad, such as Son Heung-min, Brennan Johnson and Richarlison, assists have been extremely important for his Spurs career to light up.
Ranking in the top 83 percentile for assists, compared to midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues, there are no signs that his creative talents are going away anytime soon. [FBref]
However, it is clear that Maddison must become more ruthless in front of goal, something that would have come in handy as Tottenham aimed to finish in the Champions League qualification spots.
In other Tottenham news, the club are set to enter transfer negotiations for an “exciting” West Ham United talent.
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