At a glance:
- Jamie Carragher lauds James Maddison
- Englishman now fully fit after ACL injury
- Maddison hasn’t featured for Tottenham this season
James Maddison has returned to the matchday squad for Tottenham in recent weeks but has yet to feature for the club this season.
After suffering an ACL injury in pre-season, the England international has been on the sidelines.
However, Roberto De Zerbi’s decision to include him in the matchday squad for the games against Brighton and Wolves suggests he is close to returning to full fitness.
And Jamie Carragher feels Maddison will be crucial for Tottenham if they are to avoid the drop.
Carragher heaps praise on Maddison
Dejan Kulusevski hasn’t featured since the back end of last season as he continues to recover from an Achilles tendon injury.
And yesterday, it was confirmed that Xavi Simons will miss the rest of the season for Tottenham after suffering an ACL injury against Wolves.
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Tottenham have struggled for goals and creativity this season. And Carragher feels Maddison is the only player in the current squad who can provide the required spark.
“Spurs have been really unfortunate with injuries,” began Carragher on Sky Sports.
“If they didn’t have this injury record, they wouldn’t be in this position. However, they have had ACL injuries to three players in the same position, Kulusevski, Maddison and now Simons.
“But now I feel Maddison, who is returning from injury, may have to play a role in terms of keeping Tottenham up.
“He is the only one I can think of in terms of doing something special.
“He is coming back from a big injury and we might only be talking about 15 to 20 minutes off the bench, but he is the only one when I look at that squad and think he could produce that little bit of magic Spurs need, especially in the away games at Aston Villa and Chelsea.
“When I think of the Spurs players and that little bit of fear of going down, and it may have gone a little after the win at Wolves, but Maddison would continue to take the ball. He’d still want to take it no matter what the situation.
“For Spurs to stay up, I feel he has a role to play.”
Maddison didn’t feature in the last two games, but Tottenham ended up getting four points on the board. It remains to be seen if he gets minutes under his belt when they take on Aston Villa at the weekend.
Tottenham struggling for goals
Against Wolves, Tottenham also lost Dominic Solanke to a hamstring injury. With Simons also out, it could prove to be a big problem for De Zerbi as they face a race against time to save themselves.
And Carragher feels it’s going to be really difficult for the North London club in the coming weeks, especially with Nottingham Forest and West Ham United in good form.
“It’s going to be really tough for Spurs,” said the former Liverpool defender when asked if Tottenham can avoid relegation.
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“The fans will now be thinking they have won a game of football – they haven’t won a game of football all year and it’s hard to comprehend that. However, their rivals West Ham and Nottingham Forest both won also.
“If you add that to the injuries they got at the weekend, even though they have won a game, they are actually in a worse position than last week because they’ve got the easiest game on paper out of the way.
“West Ham and Nottingham Forest have difficult fixtures on paper, there’s no doubt about that, but when you look at the players they both have and with both playing with a front four, Morgan Gibbs-White or Jarrod Bowen, Spurs don’t have a player in the attack that can even come close to either of those players.
“That is what worries me for Spurs. After watching the Wolves game and also the injuries in attack, who is going to score a goal for Spurs? Who is going to create something?
“I look at the games they’ve got at Aston Villa and at Chelsea. They are tough games, no matter how you are playing or how good a team you’ve got.
“But I can’t see them scoring a goal. If they do score, I can only see it being one, so they have to then keep a clean sheet to win the game, so I find it difficult to make a case for them in those two games.
“That then puts huge pressure on the home.”
