Maddison must toughen up and pick Leicester battles better

Social media disasters

Maddison has been praised by many in the football world early in his football career, they all seem desperate to give him a metaphorical pat on the head for being a clever and intelligent young footballer. Given the stock answers that in-house media teams have coached into today’s generation of players it’s not hard to see why ‘Madders’ stands out as a breath of fresh air. His comments in his interview were alarmingly honest. Admitting that the team lacked hunger in any capacity, be that in challenges or attitude is worrying with the grim reaper of relegation edging closer to the King Power Stadium. But wait, we might have missed something after he tweeted not long after:

The “way out of context” he is referring to is unnamed, but given the interview and his explanation on the tweet are nearly identical, it’s difficult to see what he’s talking about or why he seems annoyed. In two separate ways, he’s telling the world that the team lacks motivation. The second message alludes to the attitude and application being exactly where it needs to be in training despite his earlier interview claiming there were the things not right in matches.

He seems sensitive to criticism and like a moth to a flame eager to check social media after games. After getting embarrassed in a crucial game near the end of the season why would you go to the exact place you will find people taking things out of context? Earlier that afternoon, Leicester fans were already singing “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” to the team, that was the only opinion relevant to anything related to his actual job that day. Yet criticism of an interview seemed to be his main issue.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this sensitivity exposed. On the March 6, following a poor defeat to doomed Southampton, Leicester City journalist Rob Tanner wrote a stinging piece for The Athletic, titled:

"“This Leicester side buckle under the slightest pressure – and it could spell doom”"

Despite all Leicester fans accusing the players of this soft underbelly as far back as Summer 2020, it was a surprise that Maddison didn’t take kindly to this and ironically buckled under the pressure of criticism in the strangest of fashions.

Unfortunately, this response has now been copied and pasted thousands of times across Leicester City social media accounts as they try and make sense of what Nigel Pearson would claim were the words of an ostrich, as Maddison and the rest of the LCFC stars seem to have had their heads in the sand all season, particularly when defending. Tanner was spot on and looking back, the midfielder’s response was immature, ignorant and incorrect.