Exclusive: James Maddison says Ange Postecoglou has told Tottenham to play with the 'shackles off'

James Maddison says Ange Postecoglou is giving Tottenham the freedom to play attacking football going into the new Premier League season.

Postecoglou was confirmed as new Spurs boss on a four-year deal early in the summer and soon secured the signing of Maddison from Leicester.

Maddison was impressive as Spurs beat Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 as the club put in another impressive performance in pre-season under their new manager, although the positive mood at the club has been dampened after Spurs accepted a package worth over €100 million to sell Harry Kane to Bayern Munich.

Speaking to TNT Sports about his first couple of months at Tottenham, Maddison said: “Firstly, the team’s really bought in to how the gaffer wants to play.

“It’s been well documented in the media that Tottenham have had a couple of coaches that have been maybe more defensive minded; big-name coaches who have been very successful but have been a little bit more defensive minded."

Postecoglou is the fourth permanent manager in four years at Tottenham, following on from Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte.

Asked how the former Celtic boss is trying to encourage a shift to a more attacking mindset, Maddison said: “The gaffer’s come in and kind of stripped that back and basically said, 'if this goes wrong it’s on me, so play with the shackles off'.

“The lads are buying into it. I see training every day and the quality’s so high and the lads are really buying into it and trying to implement what he wants.

“It can be difficult if you’ve worked with managers, your natural instinct is almost to go defensive or sit off and that’s the opposite of what he wants."

On the face of it, Postecoglou’s approach is having an instant impact with Spurs scoring 10 goals in their last two pre-season fixtures; winning 5-1 against both Singaporean club Lion City Sailors and Shakhtar.

Discussing the shift in mindset, Maddison said: “It’s all I know at my Spurs because I’ve only just joined, but I can see everyone working really hard and hopefully that pays off on the pitch when it comes to the start of the season.”

Tottenham begin their Premier League campaign with a trip to Brentford on Sunday.

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