Ange Postecoglou thinks James Maddison will bounce back from a disappointing end to last season, revealing that the attacking midfielder has looked sharp in training since returning from pre-season.
Maddison had an outstanding start to his Spurs career following his move from Leicester City last summer, arguably being the best player across the Premier League for the first few months of the 2023-24 season.
However, the midfielder failed to recapture the same sort of form when he returned from his ankle injury, struggling to impact games towards the end of the season.
The 27-year-old was subsequently left out of the England squad for the Euros, which came as a major blow to him, with the player taking to social media to admit his disappointment at not boarding the plane.
Some Spurs fans might even prefer to see Lucas Bergvall get the nod to start over Maddison in Tottenham’s season opener this evening, given how well the Swede has done during pre-season.
However, Postecoglou insisted that he has no doubts about his vice-captain, backing him to use the adversity to his benefit and come back stronger this season.
When asked if he spoke to Maddison about his omission from the England squad, the Spurs boss told Sky Sports: “I haven’t had an extensive chat with him. But again, I think that’s part of a footballer’s journey. I’ve often said that I think sometimes we see things in such a linear sort of way where we think that everything is going to be great and it never is.
“You could be the greatest at something but there’s going to be challenges, there’s going to be stumbles along the way and it’s how you react to them, what you do about them. How you embrace the next challenge that comes along.
“For Madders, I’m sure he was enormously disappointed in missing out because he’d been a part of that team that went on that journey. But he’s still got plenty of football in him and there are still challenges there for him. It’s how you deal with that. Do you kind of just write it off or do you use it as motivation moving forward? Do you use it as maybe a time of self-reflection to say, well, could I have done anything better?
“When you’re honest with yourself and ask those questions, you might find that, no, actually I’m still on the right path. But you need to do that and use that moving forward. He’s been great since we got back. His season last year kind of reflected ours. He was unbelievable when he was up and going and then he had injuries.
“It was a bit of a grind when he did get back and that was kind of us as a team, so hopefully the way we’ve learned as a team he’s learned about as an individual – because he’s a big part of our side. We’ve got a very young team and he’s one that has that experience, has that quality and one we’ll be looking for to guide us through it.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Maddison is a tough character and is a fierce competitor. He will be desperate to prove a point on the pitch and to silence his critics and doubters.
I expect the 27-year-old to step up and dominate matches like he did at the start of last season.
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