Tottenham continue to puzzle us. Tottenham continue to frustrate. That’s always the way, isn’t it?
However, under Ange Postecoglou there has been a flirtation with improvement. No one can deny that Spurs play exciting football but their results have been far from consistent, chiefly in 2024/25.
At times, the north Londoners have looked like world beaters. They beat Manchester City and Aston Villa in the same week, only to taste defeat against Galatasaray and then even more worryingly against Ipswich Town.
The Tractor Boys and Crystal Palace picked up their first wins of the campaign against Spurs which has ruined any progress Postecoglou had achieved in the opening weeks of the season.
Pressure is mounting and it will continue to do so the longer Spurs don’t look as though Champions League football will be inbound.
As much as Brennan Johnson has played like a man possessed this term, scoring seven goals, and Heung-min Son’s return to fitness will be a game-changer, there have been some notable underperformers who aren’t helping matters.
One of those is £40m man James Maddison.
James Maddison's time at Spurs in numbers
The arrival of Maddison in the summer of 2023 was an exciting one. After Leicester had been relegated a whole host of top-flight clubs had taken an interest in the Englishman and understandably so.
The former Coventry man had scored ten goals and supplied nine assists in all competitions for the Foxes. Arriving at Spurs, the first few months of his time in the capital was seriously impressive.
He began the 2023/24 campaign with three goals and five assists in his opening 11 league matches before injury derailed a promising start. Since then, Maddison has struggled to replicate those performances.
The 27-year-old scored just one for the remainder of the season after returning in January and in 2024/25, has flattered to deceive.
Ultimately, Spurs look better when he’s not starting. The attacking midfielder may have scored three goals this season but their 4-1 win over West Ham a few weeks ago was evidence that they may not need him to be at their best.
Maddison was withdrawn at half-time with the score 1-1 before Spurs scored three without him on the pitch. Since then, he started in the defeat to Palace and then began the games with Aston Villa and Ipswich on the bench.
The final straw for Postecoglou may well have been the loss in Turkey to Galatasaray where Football.London reporter Alasdair Gold handed him a 4/10 match rating and wrote that it ‘wasn’t the performance to show that he should be starting’.
So, where do Spurs go from here? Potentially a replacement in the transfer market?
Spurs' potential James Maddison replacement
It remains to be seen what Tottenham’s priority in the January transfer window is but reports have already emerged suggesting that a pretty penny could be spent on the signing of a new midfielder.
That’s according to journalist Christian Falk who reported this weekend that Spurs are battling fierce rivals Arsenal for the signing of Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Larsson. Liverpool are also showing interest and according to prior reports, he could cost in the region of £70m.
So, who is Larsson and what could he offer the Lilywhites? Well, at the moment, the 20-year-old is more of a holding midfield player, someone capable of dictating play from deep. He has registered 1.48 interceptions per 90 minutes, enough to rank him among the top 17% of positionally similar players in Europe’s top five leagues.
We know he can break up the play but what does he offer that makes him such a fine Maddison replacement? Well, as data analyst Ben Mattinson suggests, Larsson is “very similar to [Jude] Bellingham”.
Why? The youngster stands at a tall 6 foot 2 and like Bellingham, possesses rangy strides that would make him the perfect profile of player to operate as a box-to-box midfielder, someone capable of making late runs into the box to score goals.
As it happens, despite playing deeper in the Frankfurt side, the Swede is already beginning to show signs of being a player who can score goals.
He has scored as many as Maddison this term (3) and ranks highly among midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for plenty of attacking metrics.
Goals
0.17
Top 85%
Shots on target %
45.5%
Top 4%
Goals per shot
0.36
Top 99%
Goals per shot on target
0.80
Top 98%
Based on the numbers above, there is certainly a reason to believe that as Larsson grows older, he could feature quite prominently in an attacking role as Maddison has done over the last few years.
Spurs already have a number of top young players – chiefly Mikey Moore and Lucas Bergvall – but the Frankfurt ace would sit very nicely alongside them over the years to come.
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2 ByAngus Sinclair Nov 17, 2024