Paul Merson says Tottenham don’t pass the ball to ‘frustrated’ teammate enough

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Tottenham Hotspur’s frustrations in the Premier League continued when they dropped points away at West Ham United on Tuesday night.

Even though Brennan Johnson opened the scoring for his side, they were quickly pegged back by their neighbours and failed to move into fourth place in the table.

Frustratingly for Tottenham, they conceded another set-piece, with a clear weakness in Guglielmo Vicario’s game.

Ange Postecoglou had made several changes to his XI from the win over Luton Town, including eventual goalscorer Johnson coming into the picture.

One man who remained in the XI was star playmaker James Maddison, but just like the weekend, he didn’t last the 90 minutes.

That call from Postecoglou took Paul Merson by surprise who stated that the 27-year-old looked ‘frustrated’ when he went off at the London Stadium, as he told Soccer Special on Sky Sports (02/04/24 at 9:45 pm).

The one issue Merson has with Maddison being in the XI is that he feels the Tottenham players don’t pass him the ball enough. 

In those pockets, and as a playmaker, you would argue he is the best creative brain at the club, but Merson added ‘he needs to get on it more’.

Tottenham’s draw at West Ham United

“Maddison is coming off. He has done alright when he gets the ball,” said Merson.

“He needs to get on it more. They don’t give it to him as often as they should. They should be saying ‘every time you get the ball, give it to Maddison’. I don’t think that happens. He looks frustrated.”

James Maddison’s form

Is it a case of Maddison setting the bar so high and not being able to match it again? Or does he just need time to get going again?

The feeling amongst some Spurs fans is that Maddison isn’t showing the form he produced during the first half of the game or pre-injury.

Postecoglou’s call to constantly sub him off has caused a bit of a stir with Jamie O’Hara, but you have to question why he constantly does it.

Since moving to the club from Leicester City, he has only completed the whole game five times without being taken off, so don’t expect that to change anytime soon.