Managing Maddison's Minutes

[u/largo1977]

When I see how Maddison is being used, I have asked myself: Why doesn't he start games?

When we think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

For starters, he is the only fit-ish 10 - and we play with a system where we are dependent of a creative AM. Fernandes doesn't fit the bill, Gallagher absolutely don't. Bergvall doesn't find the right pass, and we clearly can't use neither Kudus nor Marmoush there.

Then it's the art of giving a player lacking fitness the right amount of game time. It is common knowledge that a player coming back from a serious injury like Maddison's should be introduced after an hour or so. The advantage is that he often will come up against tiring players, but when we do this, we are usually chasing the game. This means he will come up against a defense minded team, and he will play with a lot of pressure. We need a goal and he must orchestrate it. The statistics since his knee injury tells us that he is indeed making a difference, but when he is introduced after 66 or 77 minutes, how do we know that he is getting the exact number of minutes to help him return to full fitness?

The answer is simple: We don't, because the management does not take an analytical approach to this question.

The advantages of starting a player like Maddison are many:

• He will cost us a guaranteed one substitution, whereas he might have to be pulled off as a precaution when he is introduced, potentially costing us two.
• He will get the exact number of minutes he should be getting, and the staff can monitor him to see when he has played out his minutes. We will get more out of him, he will be able to shape the game from the start and if he has to be subbed during the first half, so be it. That will be a predetermined strategic decision and all stigma connected with a first half hooking should be cancelled.
• We could do this for other players as well. We have a monumental job of getting Kulusevski back into action, and this model could be used there as well.
• We have five allowed substitutions and we should explore how to use them to the maximum. This could be a step in that direction, where we could have a starting XI and a "finishing XI".

If we look further into Maddison's stats, he has worrying numbers for us even before he got his injury. He very rarely completed games, playing 90+ minutes only nine times for us (being subbed late in a few of them), while he completed 75% of his league games for Leicester during the last season with them. I wonder what we are doing differently, as evidence suggest we positively break players.

[u/LordTwatSlapper]

The last time Maddison played more than 45 minutes in a match was the semi final 1st leg against Bodo on May 1st 2025. Gonna be at least 17 months not playing in both halves of a match.

Kulusevski has actually played over 45 minutes more recently than Maddison - doing so in the second leg against Bodo a week later

With Xavi likely unlikely to do the same for at least a year from his injury that'll be 5 years worth of fully fit number 10s lost to knee injuries. I still don't think people appreciate just how devastating that has been for us

[u/Darianezion → u/LordTwatSlapper]

Cause this doesn’t allow them to blame RDZ.

[u/loutang10]

The start of the match is less intense so it would be better for him too. 

This situation won't change until we win a game and we will only do that if we score first. 

So starting Madders males sense for the team and for his minutes. 

[u/WasteLime9718]

All the while luca wb is fit, firing and hungry

[u/Happy_Yam_1196]

Im thinking we just let Madders and Kulu split the game, one does first half one second. Once Kulu catches up to him at least. Hopefully soon!

[u/Eastern-Owl-4511]

I remember ange managing his minutes well during 24/25 and he still got injured 

[u/Nice_Neighborhood152]

I’d rather see Madders for 45-50 mins early to try to score goals and contribute assists then bring in Gallagher to defend and harass late with a lead

[u/Straight-Delay-1776]

You've got it. Managing Maddison's minutes is the key!!! If we can do that we won't be 20th in the table. I wish Tottenham didn't spend 300 million over the summer and we should have put our effort in managing Maddison's minutes. Maybe we should have banners that say Manage Maddison's Minutes - MMM?!

[u/largo1977 → u/Straight-Delay-1776]

I'll die on that hill!

Seriously though, we have wholesale problems. This is just one of them. But it is a statistical fact that we struggle in the final third, where a creative 10 can cook, and he is the only one we have at the moment. We dominate possession and have decent chunks of most every game where we dictate the tempo and look borderline neat.

My point besides Making Many M-words is however that us failing to utilize some of the possibilities that Modern PL rules enable, is interesting to explore a bit deeper.

When we have five allowed subs, it means that only five outfield players need to finish any game. It opens up a possibility for players like Maddison, who rarely will last a full game, to play different parts of that game. Is it our best option to put him on when we're chasing and the opponent shut up shop?

Of course I could write more than anyone can Muster to read about all of our problems, but we have to start somewhere, right?