Spurs gem who Poch compared to Messi is outscoring Maddison

Following a Premier League campaign of ups and downs last season, Tottenham Hotspur have a massive year ahead of them.

Ange Postecoglou did reasonably well in his first season with the club, although given the investment over the summer, there is an expectation from fans and pundits alike that he should lead the North Londoners back into the Champions League places come May.

Unfortunately, with just four points from a possible nine so far, things haven’t started as well as they could’ve and while there is plenty of time to recover over the next nine months or so, the North London Derby on Sunday represents a massive challenge.

The Australian is going to need his star players to be on top form, including James Maddison, who had a middling debut campaign with the club, and was actually outperformed by a former Spurs player last season.

Maddison’s 23/24

The North Londoners paid Leicester City £40m to secure the services of Maddison last summer, and it would probably be fair to say that over the course of the campaign, fans saw the best and worst of him.

For example, in his first ten league games, the Coventry-born dynamo scored three goals and provided five assists, meaning that right off the bat, he was averaging a goal involvement every 1.25 games.

In fact, his performances were so impressive and impactful on the team’s overall game that he was already being touted as the signing of the summer by some, including former professional Alan Stubbs.

However, at home to Chelsea in early November, he suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of action until late January.

Upon his return, he looked considerably less dangerous, returning just one goal and four assists in 17 games, eventually ending the season with a somewhat underwhelming tally of four goals and nine assists in 30 games.

Now, while he couldn’t maintain his electric form from the start of the campaign, Maddison still showed enough to keep his place in Spurs’ best XI this year, although he’ll need to up his game, and if he does that, it’s unlikely that the former Tottenham youngster who outperformed him last season will do so again.

Marcus Edwards’ 23/24

Yes, the former Spurs youngster in question is Marcus Edwards, who was an exciting prospect at the club in the late 2010s but left in 2019 to join Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães on a free and with only one Tottenham appearance under his belt.

While he wasn’t anywhere near the first team at the time, it was seen as something of a blow, especially as Mauricio Pochettino had previously compared him to Lionel Messi of all people, saying: “His qualities, it’s only looks, his body and the way that he plays, remember a little bit from the beginning of Messi.”

The Englishman’s first season in Portugal was a roaring success as he scored nine goals and provided seven assists in just 36 games, and while he could only muster up three goals and three assists in 36 games the following season, he had done enough to earn a £6.5m move to Liga Nos giants Sporting CP that February, although he wouldn’t leave Vitoria until the summer.

The Enfield-born gem set the league alight in his first season with the Leões, scoring 12 goals and providing 14 assists in 51 matches, although a slight reduction in minutes last season saw his output come down slightly.

However, he still scored six goals and provided nine assists for the Portuguese giants, showing in glimpses the sort of form that earned him his move in 2022, while outscoring Maddison in the process.

With all that said, if Spurs fans were asked to choose between the two, they’d almost certainly pick the former Foxes ace, but Edwards is still a talented attacker, and who knows how good he could have become if he’d stayed in North London.