Since being awarded the temporary armband Leicester City’s James Maddison has shown tremendous leadership as well as ownership of his newfound role. Both on and off the pitch LCFC’s No.10 seems to have embraced the captaincy and has finally given the club and the fans a strong vocal leader that they have been desperately searching for.
We are now in a time within football where players addressing performances or talking points around the game via social media has become a commonality. Something that Maddison has chosen to do as a way of leading from the front, the first iteration of this came after Rob Tanner, the LCFC correspondent for the Athletic, wrote an article being critical of City’s performance in the 1-0 loss away at Southampton at the start of March.
Calling the article “Rubbish”, the playmaker said Tanner should “Watch and analyse the game properly”. This quite visceral response by Maddison could be interpreted in numerous ways. On the one hand it is clearly in his nature to not give the “media trained” response as has been the case with his post-match interviews which many have described as a breath of fresh air.
This could be perceived as another case of his authentic approach, essentially challenging the mainstream footballing-norms by addressing the criticism directly and publicly defending his teammates and their performance. Which would be something that you want or expect someone entrusted with the captains armband to do. It is precisely the passion that City fans have been craving for all season coupled with his effort-filled performances and attitude on the pitch.
However, these displays in the media could also be interpreted in the other direction. It could be representative of the lack of accountability that seems to be happening with the club at the moment. You look around the league particularly with the clubs fighting to keep their Premier League season, Crystal Palace are sitting 12th not won a game in this calendar year, dismisses Patrick Vieira. A manager which last season many clubs were envious of the transformation he had made with that side.
Do not get me wrong, the run of form is of course indefensible, but it is not too dissimilar to the run Brendan Rodgers had at the start of the season which had the Foxes sitting on one point after eight games. I completely understand that these two situations are not the same and I will happily listen to the argument of keeping Rodgers based off his previous achievements.
Nevertheless, when there is such a large disparity between performances, and many clubs around LCFC would kill to have the squad of attacking talents that Rodgers possess it does bring the question round to culpability. That also brings us to his most recent tweet post the 1-1 draw away at Brentford on Saturday afternoon.
As Maddison states “No shame in a point at Brentford” which in itself is absolutely correct and nothing he says in the rest of his tweet should be criticised. Complimenting Harvey Barnes who has dipped in and out of form throughout the campaign perhaps being the reason why he gave the winger some praise in said tweet. It is merely the defensive nature in which he writes it that seems like a way of addressing the negativity in the fanbase around the current performances and results – some of it warranted, much of it counter-productive.
Perhaps it’s the feeling towards the manager, a coach in which he seemingly has a great relationship with – hence the Northern Irishman has entrusted the armband with Maddison during this difficult period. It is a sad position to be in that the now captain feels the need to continuously have to come to the public defence of his manager, teammates and club as a whole. Although this may be the last season we see the 26-year-old in a Leicester City shirt – hopefully not the case – there is no doubt he will be fighting till the bitter end to keep the club in the Premier League.