‘Best I’ve seen Maddison in my three years here’
MIDFIELDER IN GREAT SHAPE
LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers has said James Maddison is looking better than he ever has done in his time at the club, writes Amie Wilson.
Last year’s player of the season started his first game of pre-season in the 3-3 draw with sister club OH Leuven on Saturday.
The midfielder’s quick-thinking from a free-kick led to Patson Daka heading in to make it 2-2 just before both players were taken off as part of a full team change on 60 minutes.
Maddison ended last season with his best ever return for goals and assists, having netted 18 goals in all competitions, despite admitting he struggled for form and confidence at the start of the campaign.
A chat with Rodgers after the 2-1 defeat against Brighton in September helped to turn his season around.
The 25-year-old excelled in the second half of the campaign, scoring in each of his last four Premier
League games before the summer break.
He has returned with a point to prove after being left out of the England squad for the summer’s Nation’s League games, appearing to excel in videos of pre-season testing released by the club.
Following the draw against Leuven, Rodgers seemed to back up what fans had noticed about the midfielder in the early days of preseason.
“James Maddison, it’s the best I’ve seen him in the three-and-a-half years I’ve been at Leicester,” Rodgers told LCFC TV.
“He looks now really physically strong, technically confident and tactically, his view of the game is outstanding. His quick-thinking, free-kick and, of course, a really good finish by Patson.”
After a week-long training camp in Evian, followed by the game in Belgium, Maddison and the rest of the
City squad will now return to England to continue their pre-season preparations.
The side are next in action tonight when they visit Championship side Hull City in their latest friendly, and the team will be looking to cut out some of the mistakes seen against Leuven.
“They need a day to recover, it’s been long days and long nights because we’ve been doing a lot of work in the evening with the players,” said Rodgers.
“They get back, recover, but we’ve got to keep pushing, it’s just week by week, building up the fitness and then obviously technically, the players improve even more as they get fitter.
“It’s the one thing, when you’re not quite at your fitness level, technically you see sometimes misplaced passes and what not. We’ll keep working on our fitness and lots to work on tactically.”