Pundit notices concerning body language from Spurs midfielder
By Tom Vinall
On Sunday afternoon, Spurs had by far their worst performance of the season in the defeat at Crystal Palace. Even in previous defeats, even those by a few goals, Ange Postecoglu's side are generally capable of creating chances - with taking them being a more pressing issue than creating them.
That was not the case at all against Palace, with Oliver Glasner's side more than comfortable without the ball. If anyone looked like getting the second goal of the game, it was the hosts.
Despite having a positive start to the season, James Maddison was seriously unable to create anything of note - and only one chance in general. In fact, the best chance Spurs had all game actually fell to him, as he failed to find the net from a Destiny Udogie cutback just before half-time.
So, when he was taken off after 62 minutes, few would say it wasn't justified. However, former Tottenham Hotspur scout, Bryan King has made a note of the midfielders reaction after he was withdrawn from the game.
He told Tottenham News: "Spurs looked a very ordinary team against Palace. We hardly saw any of the attacking players. Maddison was a disappointment again. There was a moment during the first half where I thought he could have scored.
However, he seemed to get his feet into a bit of a mess. He just looked out of sorts, to be honest. And by the look of his reaction when he got pulled off just past the hour mark, he doesn’t look happy at all.”
This is not the first time that Maddison's character has been pointed out recently. After the win against West Ham, it was mentioned how the midfielder did not post anything on social media - with some attributing it to the fact that he was taken off at half-time, and the goals flowed in in the second period.
It is worth noting that he is quite a big social media user compared to other footballers, so perhaps there is some truth to him not being happy despite the win.
However, a lot of the time, when players show frustration after being taken off when their team is losing, most of their anger is at their own performance, rather than the decision to take them off. This could perhaps have been the case with Maddison yesterday.
You would hope no player was content with their display yesterday, and you can be sure if they showed no emotion at all - that would be getting plenty of criticism too. That is the way it goes in football sometimes. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.