‘A danger to a lot’: Ian Wright says Tottenham player ‘the most natural’ of his position

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Ian Wright says James Maddison is going to be a ‘a danger to a lot of teams’ after he scored his first goal for Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur.

The 26-year-old has made a super start to life as a Tottenham player, including assisting two on debut and now opening the scoring as his side beat Bournemouth 2-0 on Saturday.

This isn’t a surprise to someone like Ian Wright because he thinks that James Maddison would ‘fit in’ as soon as he heard about the playmaker moving to Hotspur Way and how he is England’s ‘most natural’ number ten, as he told Premier League Productions (26/08/23 at 8:40 pm).

Even though Maddison suffered relegation with Leicester City last season, with the ball, he was regarded as one of their best players.

Despite Leicester’s troubles, he still managed to hit double-figure goals in back-to-back seasons, including earning a spot at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, despite not playing under Gareth Southgate for a number of years.

And now he is showcasing his stuff in Tottenham colours and Wright is liking what he is seeing.

“When you heard of this move, when you heard Maddison could go to Tottenham, you could feel that he would fit in,” said Wright.

“I think, in this country, the most natural number 10 we have got. He is somebody who plays that role and knows exactly how to play it. He picks up the ball, whether he is in the final third or his own half. His distribution is brilliant. Skills and turns.

“He’s got that. The set-piece. The arriving in the box. You can see that he is very much enjoying what he is doing. He is in a position on that pitch where he is going to exactly slip it through to that forward or score himself. He will be a danger for a lot of teams.”

Postecoglou and Maddison

The England international is just the perfect player for the Treble-winning Celtic coach because his attack-minded nature suits how Maddison wants to play.

One issue with Maddison’s game is what he does without the ball, well, Postecoglou tries to negate that all by pushing his team so far up the pitch that it requires them to do less defensive work.

Either way, Maddison is cooking very early on in the season and they have, once again, another high-quality playmaker singing and dancing with the ball, like they have had throughout their history.