View: James Maddison and Martin Odegaard compared as Jenas makes prediction for Tottenham star
It’s the October international break and Tottenham are top of the Premier League with Arsenal behind them on goal difference while both of the North London rivals also remain unbeaten.
When has that ever been said before?
Ange Postecoglou’s men are flying and the Gunners aren’t doing so badly themselves with both sides benefitting from a series of fine performances by playmakers James Maddison and Martin Odegaard.
It is without a doubt that right now, they’re the two best attacking midfielders in the Premier League at this stage of the season – but who is better?
Jermaine Jenas firmly believes it’s Maddison.
“I was having this discussion recently with an Arsenal fan around Odegaard and James Maddison,” Jenas told TNT Sports (12 October).
“The guy said ‘you would always take Odegaard over Maddison’ and I’m like – ‘why?’
“I’m not that convinced by it. Odegaard is a special talent, so is James Maddison.
“It’s more to do with how he [Maddison] has transformed a team on his own.
“That’s the biggest fear for Spurs, Maddison’s fitness and maintaining that all year, because you take him out of that team, it looks totally different.
“He is a top-class talent who is on the verge of becoming a world-class talent as soon as he gets onto that stage.”
It’s easy to back up Jenas’ view with stats as well because while Odegaard has been in hot form this season, Maddison has been absolutely on fire.
According to stats by Wyscout, Maddison has completed more key passes, smart passes and deep completions than Odegaard this season. A smart pass is defined by Wyscout as “a creative and penetrative pass that attempts to break the opposition’s defensive lines” while a deep completion is classed as “a non-cross pass that is targeted to the zone within 20 metres of the opponent’s goal”.
Maddison also dominates Odegaard for assists while the Norway international’s only redeeming feature in the stats below is that he’s outscored Maddison so far this term.
It’s worth noting that Odegaard has played 789 minutes of Premier League football this season compared to Maddison’s 746.
It’s quite clear that Maddison has been more effective at playmaking in the Premier League this season but Odegaard’s marginally superior goalscoring record suggests he’s acted more as a player who’s trying to stick the ball in the net.
When you look at their more attacking stats, Maddison has had one more shot at goal this season and far more touches inside the penalty area while their shots-on-target stat is level at 10 and Odegaard’s xG is higher.
Maddison has outperformed his xG by 0.26 while Odegaard has outperformed his by 0.52, meaning the Arsenal man is more effective when it comes to taking his chances at goal.
When it comes to passing completion rates, Odegaard seems to come out on top too.
The former Real Madrid player has higher completion percentages for overall passes, crosses, passes into the final third and passes into the penalty area.
However, the catch is that Maddison’s playmaking has generated an xA of 3.37 and an actual assists tally of four while Odegaard’s has generated just 0.81 xA and only managed one assist.
Maddison’s clearly taking more risks on the ball and although he’s more likely to misplace a pass, concede possession and less likely to score himself, he’s putting his numbers on the line to help Tottenham score goals.
Odegaard’s passes are likely to be safer and are likely to be a result of a more patient build-up play by his team overall.
This chart compares a team’s passes per 90 minutes of Premier League football so far this season to their shots per 90 minutes. The more towards the top-right a team is, the more shots and passes they have per game and as you can see, Tottenham have way more shots per 90 minutes than the Gunners, who are making more passes.
That helps explain the reason why some of Maddison’s numbers seem inferior to Odegaard’s but ultimately, football matches are won by goals and while Odegaard has more of them to his name this season, he’s not directly contributed to as many as the England international.
In other Tottenham news, John Wenham believes the club are “walking on the limit” with Fabio Paratici.