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Leicester City’s recent displays have left supporters crying out for a play-making midfielder to pull the strings from the engine room of the team.

Vicente Iborra’s departure to Villarreal on compassionate grounds has left City without a recognised midfield play-maker as manager Claude Puel has stuck with his dynamic defensive midfielders Wilfred Ndidi and Papy Mendy, with Hamza Choudhury graduating from the under-23s at times to make it a strong-looking defensive three.

However, recent performances have highlighted City’s lack of creativity in midfield and has led to calls for Puel to bring in a play-maker.

Ruben Neves' display for Wolves in the second half as his long passes lead to two goals in the 4-3 win over City highlighted the glaring absence of a player that could so similar for Puel’s side.

Puel has admitted City are unlikely to sign anyone in the current transfer window, which the Mercury understands is partly due to the fact that City and parent company King Power are still recovering from the loss of chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and that his estate is still being processed following the helicopter crash in October.

However, Puel may already have the answer within his squad.

When James Maddison sprung to prominence last season at Norwich City he was playing in a more conventional midfield role.

The 22-year-old was more of a box-to-box midfielder who was just as comfortable dropping into a deeper role to start attacks as he was getting in and around the penalty box to finish the moves.

He was effective as his goals and assists were worth 26 points for Norwich in the Championship last season, the most by a player for a team in the division.

It was that form that sparked City’s £22 million investment, but he has been played either in the number ten role or on the left of a front three by Puel, contributing five goals and four assists this season, including the free kick which led to Wes Morgan’s head to make it 3-3 at Wolves on Saturday.

Statistically, passes by Maddison result in a goalscoring opportunity more regularly than almost any other player in the Premier League.

He made 693 passes in league matches this season. A total of 45 of those have created a goalscoring opportunity for a team-mate according to data from Opta.

That works out at one chance for every 15.4 passes. Only three players who have made at least 500 passes have a better ratio than Maddison - Gylfi Sigurdsson with 11.9 passes per chance created, Ryan Fraser with 12.9 and Mo Salah with 13.0.

To emphasise the effectiveness of Maddison when he is on the ball, his stats can be compared to Chelsea’s Jorginho, who hit the headlines recently when it was revealed that the Italian has made 1,896 passes in the league this season - more than any other player - but has yet to record an assist.

The former Napoli player has only created 11 goal scoring opportunities this season according to Opta’s data. That works out as just one for every 172.4 passes.

His team-mate, Eden Hazard, by contrast, has created 57 chances this season - more than any other player in the division.

It isn’t the number of passes that makes a player effective, but the effectiveness and Maddison’s positive approach may just be the answer to his midfield conundrum.