Get Carter’s Leicester reviews 2021/22: Player of the season
By Damon Carter
With regard to defensively work rate for his team, Maddison has excelled to new heights, and his fitness and strength is at high levels. He has also had to put up with some truly shocking refereeing when he has to be smashed to the ground several times before a referee believes the opposing player should be reprimanded. Witness a horrendous challenge by Scott McTominay only punished by a yellow card, only at Old Trafford might a home player go unpunished with such a savage challenge.
Maddison has improved in virtually every facet of his game for the majority of the season. To not get an England call-up would be acceptable if the players he was competing with had surpassed his performances and statistics, but that simply isn’t true. To not give Maddison a call-up when his form is in such a strong place sends out a terrible message not only to Maddison but to many other future England hopefuls and Leicester City stars.
Gareth Southgate’s earlier comment was dismissive of Maddison’s performances reducing them down to the end of the season as if he had only turned up for a handful of games at the end. Also mentioning only his goals ignores his overall play all over the pitch. His justification for picking other players amounts to nothing more than blind loyalty:
"“He is competing with Mason Mount and Phil Foden and these types of players in the role where he is at his best. It’s one of the positions where there is a lot of strength in depth and you may have to leave players out who may be equally as deserving.” – Southgate"
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The same happened to Danny Drinkwater before Euro 2016 where he was ignored in favour of Jack Wilshere. James Maddison will most likely miss out on a place at the World Cup in 2022 unless he scores in every game and only if Mount and Foden play awfully. He was at least rightly given the City player of the season but I hope he doesn’t feel he has to go and sit in the reserves of a top six club for an England manager to acknowledge his existence. Jack Grealish is a close friend and will very likely be selling the benefits to him.
Rating: 9/10 Chances of leaving: 25%