Tottenham are in serious trouble. Two points from safety with only four games left, a squad ravaged by injuries, and a manager trying to hold together a group of players who have not won a league game since late 2025. The first victory of the year came at Wolves on the weekend — a narrow 1-0 — but even that came with a sting attached. Xavi Simons limped off with what turned out to be a season-ending ACL injury, the third Spurs wide player to suffer that exact injury this season alongside Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison himself.
Which brings us to the one name that keeps coming up whenever anyone tries to find a way out of this for Tottenham. Maddison.
The Weight of Expectation on One Man's Shoulders
It has been the best part of nine months since Maddison last played a competitive game. He tore his ACL in August and has spent the entire campaign on the sidelines, watching his club slide dangerously close to the Championship while being able to do absolutely nothing about it. He has been named in the matchday squad for the last two fixtures but not deemed ready enough to actually take the field.
Now, with the clock ticking and the situation growing more desperate by the week, Jamie Carragher has essentially said out loud what plenty of people have been thinking quietly. For Tottenham to survive, Maddison needs to play a role. Not because he can fix everything — he cannot — but because he is the only player left in that squad capable of producing a genuine moment of quality when the pressure is at its most intense.
Carragher made the comparison deliberately when he pointed to Morgan Gibbs-White at Nottingham Forest and Jarrod Bowen at West Ham — two players who have been decisive for their clubs in the final stretch of the season. Spurs, he argued, simply do not have that equivalent right now. Maddison is the closest thing they have.
What Spurs Are Up Against
The four games that remain for Tottenham are a genuine mix of the manageable and the extremely difficult. At home against Leeds and Everton, Spurs will be expected to take maximum points. But the away trips to Aston Villa and Chelsea are a different matter entirely.
Villa have been excellent at Villa Park this season, and Chelsea under their manager have been inconsistent but dangerous. Going to either of those places and nicking a point — let alone winning — is a serious ask for a Tottenham side that Carragher believes cannot score goals right now. His assessment was blunt: he can see them keeping clean sheets, but he struggles to see where the goals come from.
West Ham and Nottingham Forest both won at the weekend, meaning the gap has not closed. Spurs needed their rivals to slip up and they did not. The margin for error is now almost non-existent.
Why Maddison Matters
The thing about Maddison — the quality that sets him apart from most attacking players — is the way he behaves under pressure. He wants the ball. He will take responsibility when games are tight and his team needs something to happen. That is rarer than people think in football, especially in relegation scraps when the fear of making mistakes can paralyze entire squads.
His first season at Tottenham, before the injury, showed exactly the kind of player they signed. He was involved in everything — goals, assists, link play, creativity. He brought a swagger and a technical confidence that the side needed. Twelve months later, none of that has changed in terms of the player's ability. The question is purely about his fitness and how quickly he can get back to something approaching his best after such a long layoff.
If he can give Spurs even 20 minutes off the bench — a late free kick, a driving run, a through ball nobody else in the team would see — it could be the difference between staying up and going down. That might sound like a lot of pressure for one player returning from injury. But that is the reality of where Tottenham find themselves right now.
The Verdict
Spurs need results, and they need them quickly. The wins against Leeds and Everton at home are non-negotiable — anything less than six points from those two games and it is almost certainly over. But the away fixtures will require exactly the kind of individual brilliance that Maddison represents.
The fans will be desperate to see him back on the pitch. The manager will be weighing up how much risk is involved in playing someone who has been out for this long at such a critical stage. But as things stand, the argument for giving Maddison his minutes is getting stronger with every game that goes by without a goal from anyone else in that squad.
If not now, when?
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