Tottenham supporters will be growing tired of empty words from players after James Maddison’s most recent social media message.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have made a poor start to the Premier League season.
In fact, it is the club’s worst start to a Premier League season in 16 years. However, ahead of their trip to the Amex Stadium to play Brighton on Sunday (6 October), Spurs were on a five-match winning run, with three of those victories coming in the UEFA Europa League and Carabao Cup.
Therefore, Spurs supporters would have no doubt been feeling confident, and that confidence would have only increased as they went into the break 2-0 up against the Seagulls.
At that point, Spurs looked well-positioned to head into the October international break off the back of six straight wins. However, a dismal second-half performance allowed Brighton to score three goals and secure a remarkable 3-2 comeback win.
As a result, Spurs fans will no doubt be feeling frustrated. Just as it looked as though they had turned a corner, they resorted back to their same old ways.
And Maddison’s message via an Instagram story on Monday (7 October) is unlikely to have done much in the way of easing fans’ frustrations. If anything, it has likely increased that frustration among supporters.
The Spurs man wrote, “Yesterday’s second half was unacceptable. We take full responsibility and criticism and will use it as fuel to move forward.”
However, while there was no doubt good intent behind the message, those words are pretty empty and meaningless unless the midfielder and his teammates back it up on the pitch.
James Maddison must improve for Tottenham
Maddison hasn’t started the season poorly. However, he has hardly set the league alight, evidenced by his recent England snub, which ex-Spurs scout Bryan King feels is well-deserved.
While he got himself on the scoresheet at the Amex Stadium, doubling Spurs’ lead and seemingly putting them in control, he was nowhere to be seen in the second half, and his overall stats left a lot to be desired.
As per Sofascore, while he completed 88 per cent of his passes, none of those were key, and he also failed to create a big chance.
In addition, all three of his crosses into the box were inaccurate, as were both of his long balls, while he only was successful with 50 per cent of his attempted dribbles.
He did win four of his seven ground duels. However, he also gave possession away 11 times while being dribbled past once.
His afternoon wasn’t short of controversy either, and in truth, if it wasn’t for his goal papering over the cracks, fans would be talking about a very poor display.
Therefore, while he can send all the messages he wants until he starts backing things up on the pitch with consistent performances, fans are only likely to become more frustrated by what they will no doubt view as empty words.
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