Marcus Maddison: The Maverick With a Drop of Something Special
Last season Charlton finished dead-last in shots per game with just 9.24 attempts per match.
Let me be more clear. Of the 92 clubs in the entire football league, Charlton finished 92nd in the somewhat important category of shots.
Marcus Maddison, meanwhile, managed nearly half of Charlton’s total on his own, with 4.32 shots per game during the first half of the season before departing Peterborough for Hull. It’s in these simplest terms that one can immediately see what Maddison brings to Charlton: something…completely different.
Despite playing just 22 times in League One before his brief spell in the Championship, Maddison still out-shot every single Charlton player with 70 shots, 20 more than Macauley Bonne who led the Addicks.
Things have slightly improved thus far this season as Charlton have bumped up their shots total to 11.3 per game, but that still leaves them 13th in League One.
While there are very real concerns over Maddison’s attitude, with his former Gateshead boss Gary Mills describing him as “a good player who could be selfish at times,” it is clear that Charlton are getting someone with the dash of brilliance that’s needed and the audacious confidence to test his own brilliance. With 52 goals in 212 league appearances for Peterborough, it’s clear that Maddison’s shots aren’t empty threats.
Throughout Maddison’s career, the supposed difficulties with his personality have been at war with the fact that he can score and assist at a practically unmatchable rate.
After starting in the Newcastle youth system, Maddison was released in 2013 and told he had “a lot to learn” by reserve team manager Willie Donachie. Maddison stayed in Newcastle’s backyard to get his football education and by the end of his first season at Gateshead, it was clear that his career was just getting started.
Four goals in the first five games of the 2014/15 season convinced Peterborough to pull the trigger and sign the attacker for £250k rising to £500k, Gateshead’s record sale. Mills may have called Maddison selfish but he also described him as a “match-winner.” What followed at Peterborough was five and a half seasons of spectacular goals and match-winning displays, even if the selfishness never fully left his system.
In January Maddison’s career was at a crossroads. With six months left on his contract and a desire to leave, Peterborough chairman Darragh McAnthony made it clear he should go. Charlton had a bid accepted and Lee Bowyer and Steve Gallen drove through the night to meet Maddison and convince him of a move to The Valley. Only, ESI never had the money to fund a move and the club was placed under a transfer embargo. While that fiasco limited Maddison’s options there was still notable interest from numerous clubs in the Championship including Blackburn and Hull.
Back up north he went to Hull, entering the ultimate dumpster-fire situation. It’s safe to say Maddison didn’t light up the KCOM, but he also came into a club on an epic, historical, landslide and it seems harsh to judge a generally successful career on one doomed stint.
Regardless, Maddison’s career has sat at yet another crossroads this summer. Only this time there were far fewer suitors than just eight months ago. Maddison arrives on a 1-year prove-it contract with the option of a second year. This isn’t his last chance by any means, but his career could easily continue to slide should this move end as his last did.
Ultimately though, that’s the version of Maddison Bowyer would have wanted. No, not necessarily the player who hasn’t had a preseason and may be lacking confidence. But the player with a desperation, who knows that this has to be their moment and they can’t afford to let it slip. For a notoriously challenging character like Maddison, this is the perfect time for Bowyer to get him. While Charlton’s manager is blunt, he’s also the first to put his arm around a player and help coax the best out of him. In this way Bowyer should be the perfect manager for Maddison at this stage in his career; someone who will only accept maximum effort, but will guide, rather than threaten it out of him.
On the face of it, Maddison brings a lot that Charlton are currently lacking. In a team full of grit and hard-work, Maddison can provide the cutting edge that has so frequently been missing over the last 18 months. Maddison is a high-risk high-reward player. With every touch, he tries to make something happen and invariably it often doesn’t come off. But the insistence to continue trying and always remain ambitious also sees him come up with big moments regularly.
While scoring goals has been a problem for a while now, this season has already seen another level added to Charlton’s struggles. Bowyer’s side typically prefer to play on the break and enjoyed their best games last season when lacking the ball, something I wrote about in January. Suddenly though, Charlton have joined a league where teams are much more willing to give them possession. While the Addicks averaged 45.3% of the ball last season they are currently averaging 50%.
Against Lincoln, Charlton had 54% possession but did relatively little with it. Lincoln were happy to sit back and allow Charlton to have the ball, feeling rather comfortable defending in large numbers deep inside their own half. The pass maps below, of three of Charlton’s attackers, Macauley Bonne, Conor Washington, and Erhun Oztumer, immediately show one of the problems. The trio simply were not adventurous enough. The vast majority of their passes were over short distances and largely went backwards of sideways.
Maddison is not remotely interested in being conservative. He’s passing to kill, looking to unlock defences with a constant barrage of curling crosses and through balls.
During each of his full seasons at Peterborough, Maddison led League One in assists, even coming 10th in his final season despite leaving in January. Maddison never wants to play the safe option, making him a striker’s dream, and over the last two seasons he struck up a nearly unstoppable partnership with Ivan Toney.
The clip below shows the brilliance of Maddison, both in his desire to go for the spectacular as well as his ability to pull it off. Receiving the ball ten yards inside his attacking half, Maddison takes a touch and immediately looks up searching for the run of Toney. Without a second thought, he launches a cross-field ball onto the chest of his striker who does the rest.
Granted, the success of Maddison’s passes still rely on a striker to finish the opportunities, but it’s much easier when they have a midfielder supplying them with the kind of chances he creates. The clip below again shows the type of sorcery Maddison can conjure up to pick through compact defences. With seven defenders and nearly 50 yards standing between Maddison and the goal, he plays a delightful through ball on the ground right into the path of Toney who finishes with ease.
While Maddison’s ability to set-up his teammates will be a major boost, he will also help Charlton unlock packed defences in another way. Frequently Charlton find themselves holding onto the ball for far too long hoping to find the perfect opening before inevitably going backwards or losing the ball. This approach allows teams to defend compactly in their own box, minimising the space Charlton have to utilise. Last season the Addicks ranked 23rd in the Championship in terms of shot percentage from outside the box, with just 31% of their attempts coming from further than 18 yards.
Maddison will force teams to come out of their shell slightly. Quite simply, if you don’t press him high up the pitch he’ll shoot from scarcely believable distances. In the clip below, Maddison’s opposition have 10 men between him and the goal, with their angles seemingly covered when he gets the ball. Maddison, however, just sees this as an invitation to shoot, steadying himself with his first touch before firing into the top corner with his second. While he’s blessed with an absolute wand of a left foot, Maddison does not mind shooting with either foot and is particularly dangerous from set-piece situations.
Alex Gilbey is certainly capable of shooting from distance, but not in the same way or with the same regularity as Maddison. With his first 35 shots from outside the box last season, Maddison scored four times, a conversion rate of 11.4%. This might not sound like the guarantee I presented it to be above, but it’s a great enough chance that it will force opposing teams to play higher up the pitch or risk the very plausible prospect of Maddison hitting paydirt from distance.
Maddison has been training with non-league side Peterborough Sports this summer in an attempt to stay fit, but it may well take Charlton’s newest signing a few weeks to get up to speed considering he hasn’t had anything close to a real preseason. However, once he’s ready it shouldn’t be a major challenge for Bowyer to find him a place for him in the side. Capable of playing anywhere across the front three, Maddison particularly enjoys drifting out to the right flank where he can cut inside and either shoot or cross with his favoured left foot. The heat map below shows his average positioning from his final season with Peterborough. Operating more centrally than in previous years when he had predominantly just been a right-winger, Maddison still found himself moving out to the right flank frequently, although the graph also shows his influence across the pitch in the final third.
With that in mind, there are a number of ways Bowyer could deploy the Durham native. The simplest thing to do would be to start Maddison wide on the right where he has played most of his career, enabling him to cut inside, while Alfie Doughty likely takes the reigns on the left. Up front, Bowyer wants to bring in another striker, especially after the sale of Macauley Bonne to QPR, but at the moment he has Conor Washington and Chuks Aneke to choose from.
Another, potentially even more attacking system, could see Maddison play as a number ten, giving him license to roam wherever he sees fit. Bowyer has already shown he’s comfortable playing Washington on the left wing and Doughty on the right, so this is certainly a reasonable option. Maddison would still likely find himself meandering towards the right flank, but Washington also enjoys moving centrally and Doughty does not mind shifting to the left. The three behind the striker could fluidly interchange positions, far from a worst-case scenario.
This is probably the lowest point in Maddison’s career since being released by Newcastle at the age of 19 and while Charlton were one of many interested parties in January, they were closer to the exception now. By his own admission, the last year has been the worst of Maddison’s life. Charlton have stuck by him as an option even after his disastrous spell at Hull and now he knows it’s up to him to repay the club’s faith.
“To have consistent admiration from the manager and for him to pursue me all these months down the line shows that he believes in me as a player and that’s a massive deal for me,” Maddison said after signing on Thursday.
“It’s a fresh start for me. The amount of time I’ve had out makes you remember why you started playing football in the first place, so I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Bowyer and Maddison have linked up at a perfect time for Charlton and while there will always be a spotlight on the 27-year old’s personality, his new manager is much more concerned with what he can add to the team.
“He brings goals,” Bowyer said. “His stats over the last few years are excellent, he regularly gets to double figures in goals and gets a lot of assists, so he brings about 25 goals to a team in a season.”
Maddison might have baggage, but Charlton fans can justifiably be excited. After all, while Gary Mills called him selfish at Gateshead all those years ago he also said this: “Maddison is the only player I’ve had in 20 years of management that every time he gets the ball I think he will score a goal. That is a bit special.”
