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James Maddison discloses the name of the Premier League player he has studied to help secure a place in England’s Qatar World Cup squad.
Leicester and England midfielder James Maddison has finally revealed the name of the player he has studied to help secure a place in England’s Qatar World Cup squad.
Maddison has admitted to studying Bruno Fernandes to see how he can add more goals to his game and improve his own game.
Maddison had a standout first half of the season at Leicester, and his efforts were strong enough to get him a spot in the team for the World Cup.
That is large because of the goals he has scored—in 13 Premier League games, the 25-year-old has scored seven goals.
However, he wasn’t always a goal-scoring midfielder; before the 2021/22 season, when he really developed his shooting eye, he had never scored more than eight goals in a single season.
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He has acknowledged that he has consciously worked to develop that aspect of his game and that one of his methods has been to closely observe Manchester United’s Fernandes.
“I don’t think there is a player I model myself on now, maybe when I was younger,” he told the press when asked who he emulated.
“I appreciate all the good players in the Premier League and try to take stuff from players wherever I can. I’m often watching players in my position.
“A couple of seasons ago when I thought to myself ‘how can I score my goals?’ and I wasn’t in the squad, Bruno Fernandes was playing very well for Man Utd and putting up ridiculous numbers in terms of goals and assists.
“So I probably watched him a little bit closer at that time. ‘How is he scoring so many goals and what runs is he making that I’m not?'”