Michael Owen says one Spurs star gives the ball away a lot but is ‘brilliant to watch’

Speaking after Tottenham’s win over Fulham on Monday night, Michael Owen was full of praise for James Maddison, though he did pick out one area he could improve on.

James Maddison has taken the Premier League by storm since joining Spurs in the summer. The £40m paid to Leicester City now looks like a bargain, with the playmaker flourishing under his new manager, Ange Postecoglou.

With three goals and five assists so far this season (Transfermarkt), Maddison has been an integral figure in helping Tottenham maintain an unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign.

The England international has forged an incredible partnership with Spurs captain Heung-min Son, and it was the two stars who combined on Monday night to secure another three points and help the Lilywhites return to the top of the Premier League table.

Naturally, Maddison is attracting a lot of positive attention right now, and rightly so.

Michael Owen loves to watch Maddison play

Speaking to Premier League Productions (23/10/23, 10:05 pm), Michael Owen highlighted one area Maddison needs to work on, but had plenty of positive things to say, too.

He said: “[Maddison] is so brave with the ball. Even in the first half, I just purred with three or four of his passes. He just whips them into that frontman. Takes risks.

“He gives the ball away a fair bit, but that’s exactly what you have to do if you are going to provide the assists or score the goals that he scores.

“It’s brilliant to watch. He is always trying to make something happen. There are a lot of safe players around. They pass it around and keep their stats up and the percentage of keeping the ball.

“He doesn’t care. He literally doesn’t care – he will risk it every time he gets it. On those magic moments he creates and scores.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Maddison is truly our new talisman, and he’s so exciting to watch. You can see him on the pitch, wanting the ball all the time, dropping deep to make things happen, and driving forward to provide goals and assists. He’s special, and we are very lucky to have him.