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THREAD: The curious case of James MaddisonMaddison is one of the most consistent performers in English football, and so important to Leicester. Just look at his outrageous stats at CM over the past three seasons – every rating in our models is very stable:
1/5 #LCFC
A lot of Maddison's attacking output at CM comes from his aggressive forward passing, which you can see on his smartermap from last season – lots of yellowish markers in the left channel and drifting across the middle of the pitch (plus his corners on both sides):
2/5
2/5
In fact, there are very few players in global football who have matched Maddison's passing style while maintaining high ball retention and being as effective in attack. Here are all the ones who played at least 950' (~ ten matches) at CM in our database. Nice list to be on:
3/5
3/5
But interestingly, Maddison was only involved in about half of Leicester's goals while on the pitch at CM last season. When he played LW or CAM, it was 100% (over about 700'). So what was going on? Well, Maddison also shoots a lot, and he tends not to score the easier ones:
4/5
4/5
And Leicester also play up the flanks a lot via their excellent attacking fullbacks. The threat of Maddison on the ball probably makes more space for the fullbacks to get forward. Either way, having Maddison in the side is a big boost for the Foxes. We hope he stays healthy!
5/5
5/5
P.S. If you're wondering how much of Maddison's output came from set pieces, it was just under a third (that's if we average across our two models – read about them on our FAQ, which is accessible to all members of our site).
