Tottenham: Ally McCoist wrong to be baffled by ‘strange’ James Maddison call v West Ham United
Tottenham were unable to make it back-to-back wins in the Premier League after the March international break when they faced West Ham United.
Ange Postecoglou’s side applied plenty of pressure, but they were unable to find a winner as the points were shared in a 1-1 draw at the London Stadium on Tuesday (2 April) thanks to Brennan Johnson’s early strike.
While chasing a late goal, Postecoglou made a number of changes to his side with James Maddison one of those withdrawn in the second half and that substitution left Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist baffled.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Wednesday (3 April, 6:14) he said: “With the greatest respect, big Ange taking Maddison off, I was like what? I didn’t understand that one.”
McCoist agreed saying: “That was a strange one wasn’t it?”
Should Ange Postecoglou have substituted Tottenham star James Maddison against West Ham?
While Maddison started the season in electric form for Spurs, he hasn’t quite managed to hit the same heights since he returned from injury. In his nine Premier League games since January, the England international has managed a single goal and two assits, according to Fotmob.
Against the Hammers on Tuesday, the 27-year-old completed 89 per cent of his 53 attempted passes, but only managed to create a single goalscoring chance for his teammates, finishing the game with an xA of 0.14.
So far this season, Maddison has been one of the Premier League’s best creators, placing in the 87th percentile of midfielders for expected assists per 90 minutes, with an average of 0.27 a game, according to Fbref.
For whatever reason, the 27-year-old was just miles off of his usual standards against West Ham on Tuesday night.
Five of those 53 passes found a teammate in the final third, but Maddison failed to create from wide areas as he completed zero per cent of his four attempted crosses in the contest as Kurt Zouma and Konstantinos Mavropanos repeatedly headed clear.
The Englishman didn’t carry an individual goal threat either, despite having 10 touches in the West Ham penalty area. Both of Maddison’s two attempts on goal were comfortably blocked before they could even test Lukasz Fabianski.
Defensively, the attacking midfielder was repeatedly second best to the Irons as well, winning only 50 per cent of his 10 duels in the contest as the likes of Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta won possession well.
In comparison, Dejan Kulusevski, who replaced Maddison after 70 minutes, won four of his six ground duels to help Spurs hold on for what could be a very important point in the race for the Champions League places this season.
On top of that, in his 20 minutes of action, the Swedish international managed to complete more crosses than his English counterpart, despite having half as many attempts in the match.
Will Ange Postecoglou drop James Maddison?
While Maddison can change a game at the drop of a hat with his immense technical ability, that doesn’t give him a free pass to not be substituted if he’s not having a good game as he was against David Moyes’ side.
Postecoglou is blessed with some incredible attacking talent currently at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and that means he has to rest and rotate his squad.
Maddison was the man sacrificed on Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be straight back into the starting XI against Nottingham Forest on Sunday (7 April). Hopefully, he’ll be back to his best.
In other Tottenham news, Barcelona winger Raphinha ticks a lot of boxes for Spurs heading into the summer transfer window
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