Leicester City have confirmed the signing of James Maddison from Norwich City for an undisclosed fee. Here’s what to expect from the exciting 21-year old:
Flair
Flair is one quality that you won’t probably associate with too many of Leicester City’s current crop of players. Riyad Mahrez is definitely one, but he is set to be on his way out to Manchester City, leaving James Maddison as the only player who ticks that box.
He’s stylish, he’s exquisite and an absolute joy to watch when at his very best because of how strong he is with the technical aspects of his game. One moment, you’d be seeing him exchanging passes between the lines, the other, he’d press the accelerator and glide past a number of defenders to lay it off for Jamie Vardy or simply find the back of the net.
In a way, he’s a box-office player with box-office qualities.
A fruitful partnership with Jamie Vardy
James Maddison averages 2.6 successful long balls per game, and you know what does that mean for Jamie Vardy. The 31-year old thrives at taking advantage of an accurate ball over the top – as he did to a great effect against West Bromwich Albion for his goal of the season – and given how good Maddison is at doing that often, you’d expect a fruitful partnership between the two.
And that only makes the young midfielder even more of a perfect fit. Getting the best out of Vardy is more important for Leicester City than anything else. He’s the most important player in this side for numerous reasons, and he needs players who complement him well.
Previously, that role belonged to Riyad Mahrez, but not anymore.
An end product to match
You don’t just score 15 league goals if you’re not good enough. A lot of people tend to overlook the numbers from Championship football, but what they don’t understand is that you still need to have an eye for goal and the finishing skills to be able to have a goalscoring record that James Maddison has.
It’s astonishing that he has more goals than assists (11) from last season, so his qualities are immediately obvious. What that does is that it reduces the overreliance on Jamie Vardy to always be the man to look up to for goals.
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He’d continue to be the chief goalscoring threat of this side, but he’d now have someone with somewhat similar instincts in front of goal.