Was James Maddison right to call out Rob Tanner?
On Monday morning, James Maddison launched a broadside at The Athletic’s Rob Tanner, accusing him of deliberately creating a pile-on with unfair negativity in his coverage of the loss at Southampton.
But was Leicester’s #10 right? And should he be getting involved?
Yes
David Bevan
I can quite often see both sides of an argument and end up sitting on the fence a lot.
I think, and then I think some more, and then I see what everyone else thinks, and then I might think about starting to form an opinion of my own.
But sometimes you have to acknowledge your initial reaction. So when Maddison decided to speak out, I actually felt a tiny bit of the old fight myself. What football is meant to give you. That morning-of-a-big-game feeling. That turn-onto-Burnmoor-Street-alongside-a-big-group-of-Leicester-fans-singing-their-hearts-out feeling. That feeling that there's a bit of life about Leicester City Football Club. Perhaps it was the complete absence of that sensation for long periods this season that made it seem like more than it was.
Of course there's a wider question to address. Should our players be calling out journalists for expressing opinions they're paid to provide? Probably not. Should our best player be doing it? Our latest in the conveyor belt of captains? It doesn't scream stability. But we already knew that. This is the closest we've had to a rallying cry all season. And it's been a season crying out for one.
You can't expect the fans to get behind a manager who is performing as poorly as Brendan Rodgers is at the moment, but we do need the players to. As the club has seemingly decided to see it through with Rodgers, we need belief from our players. If James Maddison doesn't believe in the way we're stuck with until the bitter end, we're in more trouble than ever.
We lack identity. We've lacked identity for a long time now. In fact, like it or not, the way we played at Southampton is our identity. And while Rodgers remains our manager, it's likely to remain our identity.
It might not be what we all want to see but this is the Leicester City way at present. We will give up chances through aggressive defending and a high line. We will pass the ball around without doing much with it for long periods. We will occasionally look brilliant. And it'll all be very frustrating.
Clearly, Maddison's central argument might be wrong. We might not be absolutely fine if we continue to play as we did at Southampton. We shouldn't be missing sitters and we shouldn't be giving opposition players at clubs in the relegation zone a free run from the halfway line.
Yet I felt a reluctance to fully commit to the usual rage on Sunday after the initial fury of Saturday evening. We did have a few clear chances - we certainly should have equalised at the very least and then Harry Souttar could have been scoring a glorious last-gasp winner with his soaring header rather than crashing it against the bar. At the other end, aside from the goal and the penalty, we did limit Southampton.
My unhappiness with Leicester City at the moment is borne out of a lot of things but this weekend's chief cause was the result rather than the performance.
This won't wash with everyone. To paraphrase a rallying cry of old, we might not all be in it together. The replies to Maddison's tweet showed that. But contrary to those who read Maddison's words as accepting of a poor performance, I chose to take them as a reassuring sign that the Foxes haven't quit just yet.
No
Joe Brewin
If there's anyone who's allowed to come out and stand up for his team right now, it's James Maddison. As the one player who actually makes us feel anything these days, whose individual class has somehow dragged us to a points tally even this high up to now, it's hard not to just give him carte blanche when it comes to dodgy designer gear and other trivial off-field matters. Over the years, even his post-match interviews have been refreshing – a confident player talking straightforward and intelligent sense where so many of his peers don't or can't.
But that doesn't mean he'll always get it right. Monday's outing of Rob Tanner on Twitter might have been designed to rally a fan base that now seem fully migrated to Brendan Out, but it was unfair as it was misguided. Presumably, he took particular exception to the idea that "the ingredients are all there for relegation", following the latest defeat to bottom-of-the-table Southampton – but... really? Can anyone – Maddison included – try taking the moral high ground in this position?
Leicester City are two points above the drop zone with 15 defeats from 25 matches this season, having just been dumped from the FA Cup by a second-tier side. We've managed zero shots on target across our last two league matches. The manager wants half of his players gone amid a malaise that extends much further. His two best ones won't be here in another six months' time.
In calling out a journalist essentially trying to do his job fairly, Maddison hasn't so much as read the room badly but stepped into the wrong one altogether. He wasn't entirely misguided in his appraisal – on another day, Leicester would have beaten Southampton with the chances they created – but the airy assumption that all will be fine does not sit right. Fans won't be gaslighted, even by their star man. Because watching Leicester right now is thus: for every moment of Maddison magic, there are two episodes of defensive disaster just around the corner. Like giving away a penalty, avoiding trouble, then conceding the opening goal within minutes anyway. Absolutely fine.
Mainly, though, he's just wrong for his hypocrisy here: in calling out someone for allegedly inviting negativity onto the club (a hilarious idea in itself right now), Maddison must have known full well there could be a pile-on for Tanner in his own replies. In fairness, despite every one of us wanting to woo him with red roses as he nears the end of his time at Filbert Way, the support for his point of view wasn't exactly gushing.
TL;DR: there's a way to issue your war cry and it's very much not this. If anyone should be capable of much better, it's James Maddison.
