Maddison: “We want three points and to be a winning team”

James Maddison is hungry to build a winning culture this season.

Making his competitive debut for the Club in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Brentford, our new creative midfielder made an instant impact with two assists to cap an impressive start to life in Lilywhite.

As Head Coach Ange Postecoglou took charge of his first league game and Heung-Min Son led the side out for the first time as Club captain, we started well in the Gtech Community Stadium as Madders' dangerous free-kick was met by his fellow vice-captain Cristian Romero to nod us in front on 11 minutes.

The Bees responded well with Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa turning the game on its head in the 36th minute, only for our number 10 to turn creator again as he poked the ball to Emerson Royal who fired in our equaliser in first-half stoppage time from 25 yards out. We dominated proceedings in the second half – ending with 69 per cent possession and 18 shots to 11 in our favour – but the hosts’ well-organised low-block proved difficult to breakdown with the England international admitting some frustration in the result.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, the former Leicester City player gave an honest assessment on not being able to leave west London with more than a point: "(It's) not (a) brilliant (start), because we want three points and to be a winning team. We can be happy with the positives and the performance, because that’s what will get us three points, but you never want to be happy with a point, especially when you dominate teams like that.

"We’ll get better, the manager has said that. We’ll improve. It will be such a learning curve for us in the first couple of games just to get how this system and how the manager wants to play. I'm sure that it will be so beneficial to him and his coaching team to look at where we can improve now the Premier League has started. We’ll take the positives into next week."

On Sunday afternoon, Ange named four debutants including 'Madders' - with the other three experiencing the English top flight for the first time - in what was our youngest side to start a league fixture since March, 2020.

We were on top for large parts against a Thomas Frank side who lost just twice at home last term, playing an attacking possession-based system which pinned Brentford back into a low defensive block, and did well to handle our opponents' speed in attacking transitions. Despite our solid away performance in which we dominated for large parts, our number 10 admits we can still improve in certain aspects to turn results in our favour and bring success for our supporters come the end of the season.

"I think we could have won," said our new vice-captain. "I thought we dominated towards the end, had them penned in. It can be difficult against teams that sit back like that, and we need to improve and figure out the ways to get around that low block and create chances.

"We're still finding out when to turn the screw, to play the killer pass or when to cross, or when to just keep the ball. You don't want to have possession just for possessions' sake, you are doing it for a reason; to create chances and players like myself, the attacking players. We have to try to create chances but I’m sure we’ll get better at that.

"The fans were brilliant, stuck with us right until the end and that's all we can ask for - them to get on board with us - and hopefully we’ll have success at the end of the season."