James Maddison reveals Thomas Tuchel advice as Tottenham resurgence motivation England hopes

Spurs playmaker has designs on Three Lions return for first time since being cut from Euro 2024 squad

James Maddison has met with Thomas Tuchel ahead of picking his first England squad next month. He reminded the new manager that few midfielders can match his goalscoring record this season.

Maddison set up Tottenham’s third goal, scored by Djed Spence, in their 4-1 victory over Ipswich on Saturday at Portman Road.

It was Maddison’s sixth assist in the Premier League this season, and he has also scored nine goals. Cole Palmer is the only English midfielder who has outscored him, and three of Chelsea’s goals have come from the penalty spot.

Maddison was overlooked by interim England head coach Lee Carsley in the autumn and last played for his country in a pre-Euro 2024 warm-up game against Bosnia and Herzegovina in June, before being the first player dropped from Gareth Southgate’s preliminary roster.

Tuchel is set to unveil his first squad in early March for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley Stadium.

Asked if he has spoken to Tuchel, Maddison said: “Yeah, he has touched base. I believe he was contacting a large number of players who would be considered for selection, most of whom the FA had identified.

“I’m hungry to be part of that, I feel like I’m in good form, my numbers are pretty good. There’s not too many midfielders who can outscore and out-assist me, especially now when I’m feeling good as well, feeling sharp, I know I can affect most games.

“It’s just about continuing to do that and like I always say, if I play at that level for Tottenham, then the rest will take care of itself because I have a really strong self-belief.”

Maddison was sidelined for three weeks with a calf strain but scored the winner on his return to the side against Manchester United last weekend and helped to take the game away from Ipswich when he was introduced on the hour with Spurs leading 2-1 through Brennan Johnson’s double.

“I left the ground running in Hoffenheim, I got a goal and an assist that night as well, so I feel good, I feel really good actually, I feel sharp,” Maddison said.

“The injury was a bit annoying because it came at a time where I felt like I was playing pretty well, but it’s always nice when you have a little injury and you’re out for a few weeks and you come back and hit the ground running.”

Maddison is one of a number of Spurs players to have returned to the squad in the last fortnight and the easing of their winter injury crisis has coincided with three straight league wins.

The playmaker believes Ange Postecoglou’s side are now capable of surging up the league table by putting together a winning run, continuing with Wednesday’s visit of champions Manchester City.

“The physio room was busier than the changing room,” Maddison said, reflecting on Spurs’ winter injury list. “It’s tough.

“You look at the names who were out as well, it wasn’t bit-part players, it was strong players from the XI, senior players. So it was difficult.

“We’ve got a lot of young players having to take on great responsibility. When you’re a senior player who’s out – and I only had a small injury but I’m talking for the likes of Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, even [Guglielmo] Vicario was out for three months. It’s tough for them seeing the young lads having to deal with it, without being able to help.

“That’s the worst thing about football when you’re injured. You’re helpless, you can’t help the team out there, you have to watch. It drives you insane.

“It’s no coincidence… we’ve got some big key players back and some important talent back from injury, which always helps. It coincides with us winning three in a row, so we’ve got to kick on now and try and keep climbing the table again.

“It’s the difference,” he continued. “[Saturday’s game] was 2-1, it was a tight game, everyone could see that, and at 60 minutes, me and Wilson [Odobert] come on, it just changed the dynamic of the game a little bit.

“Whereas rewind six weeks, we didn’t have those options, we would have been starting, and there would have been kids on the bench, and there wouldn’t have been any changes at 60.

“It’s not rocket science, it doesn’t have to be someone extremely intelligent to realise that that can really help, especially when a big team with the quality that we have to utilise that when teams like Ipswich, no disrespect, have less quality than us throughout the squad, that we can bring on players like myself, Wilson, if they’re not in the XI, and really change the swing of the game.

“We’re one of the teams in the league that can go on a winning streak, we showed it at the start of last season.

“We have the squad and the players to be able to do that. I think there’ll be teams that are in and around the same position as us, mid-table-ish, that probably don’t feel like they can, but our ceiling is quite high, especially when we have our senior players back, so we’re capable of going on that run and bridging that gap, and that’s what we’re hungry to do.”

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Spurs playmaker has designs on Three Lions return for first time since being cut from Euro 2024 squad

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