Garth Crooks claims £40m Tottenham player looked like he barely cared in Newcastle defeat

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Tottenham Hotspur have again gone into a two-week break off the back of a chastening away day defeat.

In March, it was Fulham who dealt Tottenham are huge blow with a thumping 3-0 defeat just before the international break.

Tottenham returned with two wins from three games but were then hammered at Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.

When even Micky van de Ven turns in his worst performance of the season, you know things are bad.

Newcastle sliced Tottenham apart and handed Ange Postecoglou a 4-0 defeat; few fans could argue that the scoreline was undeserved.

Aston Villa then went and pulled off an unexpected win at Arsenal, denting Tottenham’s top-four hopes in the process.

Postecoglou has plenty to think about right now and with almost two weeks to go until Tottenham’s next game – the North London derby against Arsenal – the Spurs boss needs to come up with some answers.

James Maddison slammed

Nobody really came out of Saturday’s game with any credit and this was just an away day to forget about as Tottenham struggled throughout.

One player is now receiving major criticism as pundit and former Tottenham man Garth Crooks has slammed James Maddison.

Maddison couldn’t really get anything going at Newcastle and Crooks wasn’t impressed with his display.

Crooks has suggested to BBC Sport that Maddison looked ‘oblivious’ to the situation of Tottenham being ‘hammered’ with Champions League hopes on the line.

Crooks felt that Maddison played the game as if the scoreline didn’t matter at all, believing that he just didn’t impact the game as Postecoglou would have hoped.

“The normally impressive Micky van de Ven looked like he was playing on skis, while James Maddison seem to go through the entire match as if the scoreline didn’t matter, oblivious of the fact that his team were fighting for a Champions League spot, and getting hammered,” said Crooks.

Maddison yet to hit early season heights

We all know the quality Maddison possesses but he hasn’t really returned to the form he showed since his injury against Chelsea in November.

Maddison has only scored once in 11 games and after coming back with assists in two straight games, he has now directly set up just one goal in his last nine outings.

The key pass numbers still look decent; he recorded eight across the two games against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest.

Just three shots on target in the last nine games is a concern though, as we know Maddison can be a huge threat in and around the box.

The £40million summer signing from Leicester City had his momentum broken by that injury against Chelsea and has yet to consistently find his top form.

We are sure it will come eventually but Maddison is going trough a tricky patch at the moment and Postecoglou will be looking for him to get back to his best after this break.