Harry Winks - Leicester City

[Primativ]

The worst kind of football fan.

Maybe you should have a lie down.

I'm open minded about seeing how Winks does under a tactically astute manager who knows how best to deploy him, but personally I don't think he will be a regular under our next manager unless it's someone like Eddie Howe. God forbid. He either needs to be utilised properly, as a ball carrier type CM, or he doesn't play at all. He isn't a DM, and since Poch has played him there defensively we've gone to shit.

Even you can surely see that.

 

[dimiSpur]

I can't see what Winks is either tbh. Gone are the days where as a CM all you had to be was combative. You need to be one of the following to play in that general area:

1) A good passer - by that I don't mean finding your left back, but good forward passes. Winks is OK, not noteworthy.
2) A good DM - Someone who closes gaps and shields the defence. Thereby you're not expected to attack or create anything with great forward passing, because your job is allowing others to do this. Winks doesn't seem to have the positioning to do this. He frequently vacates the middle of the park chasing after Danny Rose's man.
3) A scoring/attacking midfielder - See Ndombele. Winks is not an Ndombele. He gets nose bleeds.

So what is he? A useful squad player. A player that loves Spurs. Not a midfield lynchpin though, by any means.

 

[razzmaster]

For me you cannot judge Winks until we start playing a 4-2-3-1 again and see if a combo of him and Ndombele works and if not then Dier comes in.

I think he only really fits into a 3 man midfield and not at the base.

When everyone is fit I see him competing with Ndombele, Lo Celso and Sissoko for one of the 2 spots in front of a holding midfielder.

I would be more than happy to have Winks, Skipp, Tanganga, Parrott and KWP as squad players but none should be considered definite starters.

 

[joelstinton14]

He played well until he got forced into a few errors. Used the ball smartly and pressed hard.

I think a lot of problems are tactical. He's fine defensively when we're actually pressing high and he pressures well in support. He's not yet a decent screen in front of the defence when we're sitting back/wide open/lazily going through the motions.

I also think with him and Sissoko a lot of the times I see them get played around is because they go and chase after someone that isn't their man (usually 'cause one of our attackers is just being real fucking lazy), cant get there and so get taken out of the game, opening a big gap.... Obviously individually they have to be canny, but it's also on the manager to drill it into them as to when to sit in front of the defence if there is no pressure on the ball ahead of them. Or get us high pressing more consistently to utilise the skillsets of the midfielders better.

Thank you. The only one who has pointed out Bayern tactical change in the first half to pressure him. He was looking good up until then. Commentators even mentioned how accomplished he looked at that level. Having two or sometimes three of their midfielders pressing him doesn’t make winks a bad player over night. Did his performance suffer, yeah, will he learn a lot from That, hopefully. But you have to credit Kovac and the Bayern players for identifying a problem and solving it.

Personally like others, I think we need Dier in the side as well. We look a much tighter unit with him there. Always have done. I don’t really know where that leaves winks with ndombele and what formation we would play but it’s somethig that needs to be looked at.

 

[HildoSpur]

I like Winks and think he is a decent player however I'm not convinced he really is good enough to be a regular starter if we are to make the next step. Having said that he is still young and has potential and I'd be more than delighted if he continued to improve and become more progressive in possession.

He has been brilliant in some big games in the past and he obviously had a mare last night, but everybody did and I also am not sure if he is being asked to play the right role in the team which doesnt help.

 

[Haddock]

To Winks defence this formation just doesn't suit him. But he's not doing himself any favours regardless. He lost the ball in incredibly dangerous situations last night and that has nothing to do with the formation. You don't try to dribble your way out of tight spots when you're on of the last men, especially if you already tried it two times in the same match and failed.

To be fair if that was Eriksen doing some of the things Winks did last night people on here would be readying the guillotine in his player thread. I get it. I have a soft spot for Winks as well, simply based on the fact that his one of our own but it's clear for me that Winks is one of the first men in the team sheet for Pochettino, even though it's equally clear that he can't play the role he's asked to do.

Further more and I've said this before, I do not feel like Winks is the type of player we need at CM, especially when we now have Ndombele. And whenever this comes up there's a whole host of people defending him by saying that "You do not understand the regista role!". Well do we need a "regista"? We have never ever been a team that outplays opponent in the midfield and we probably never will be as long as our main attackers like Kane, Son, Alli, Lucas are impact players that feeds on intensity and fast interplay through the middle. There's to much romanticism clinged on to some hope of Winks being the english Xavi while in reality it's up to debate wether we actually need that kind of player in the starting 11 to begin with.

Bayern used their "regista" in Thiago superbly last night. Bringing him on when they needed to control possession in the middle. And no I'm not comparing Thiago and Winks in any other sense than their "role". That's where Winks stands for me right now. He should be a squad player. A utility player. In certain matches he can be a terrific addition but in the majority of matches and against the majority of opponents we play he's not the answer for me in midfield.

 

[coys200]

He’s basically a luxury DM that you can play in front of a fantastic defence. Unfortunately our defence is currently not fantastic. It just can’t be a coincidence that he’s played there the majority of 2019 and we just look so vulnerable. So then if he isn’t a DM what does he actually offer. Nice technical ability tidy little player. But the only possible way he could fit in is wide in a 3 playing a sort of Henderson role.

 

[Danny1]

I have to be honest...I don’t have an agenda against Winks but... I genuinely don’t see the fuss about him?

I can’t say I’m entirely sure what we’d miss if he suddenly got injured or dropped from the team?

I’d happily be proven wrong and of course I appreciate he loves the club, but aside from sideways passes and occasional flashes of nice dribbling, what else does he bring?

He’s in the team right now as a holding midfielder and he does anything but that? For most of the game he wanders well out of position and exposes our defence.

As I said, I really like Winks and I don’t hate him as a footballer, I just can’t see what others do when it comes to what he actually brings to our team...

I just sort of get the feeling he’s a Poch pet project similarly to how Mason was.

Completely agree. A neat and tidy player but ultimately limited. It's either him or Ndombele, never both.

They both need a defensive shield next to them in midfield and we have one of them on the bench in Dier.

 

[Hotspur88]

How is he playing tonight? In work so not able to watch it all

 

[chrissivad]

How is he playing tonight? In work so not able to watch it all

We have plenty of the ball, and lots of time on it.
Keeping the ball moving, and getting the ball of the back line.

This type of game he can play as a holding midfeild. When teams close us down fast or we don't have as much of the ball, he needs to play in a cm 2 with someone like Dier.

 

[Primativ]

Pointless judging him in such a crap game.
They aren’t closing him down. All the time in the world to play a pass. He’s hit a few loose balls and a few good ones. Meh.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Pointless judging him in such a crap game.
They aren’t closing him down. All the time in the world to play a pass. He’s hit a few loose balls and a few good ones. Meh.

You’re a ray of sunshine.

 

[Blake Griffin]

How is he playing tonight? In work so not able to watch it all

much better than rice was the other night that's for sure.

 

[Cochise]

He's made some good tackles, but also been dribbled past and found out of position. He does seem to gravitate towards other players' positions instead of holding his own space.

 

[chrissivad]

He's made some good tackles, but also been dribbled past and found out of position. He does seem to gravitate towards other players' positions instead of holding his own space.

Yeah, that's why he isn't a defencive midfeild. Neither he or Sissoko have the positioning awareness to play there.

Both better when they or we have the ball

 

[Primativ]

You’re a ray of sunshine.

Meh.

 

[kmk]

 

[TEESSIDE1]

Pointless judging him in such a crap game.
They aren’t closing him down. All the time in the world to play a pass. He’s hit a few loose balls and a few good ones. Meh.

Winks had a very good game and the match wasn’t ‘crap’... England dominated them and played some very good attacking football. Winks was energetic, tenacious in the tackle and kept the ball moving.

You can’t criticise Winks by implying his performance doesn’t count because Bulgaria were so poor... an inferior team doesn’t = the better side wins. We know this better than a lot of other sides. Colchester? Newcastle? Brighton? League 2 and piss poor EPL sides, one turned us over at home and the other humiliated us away from home.

 

[PeeLee]

Harry Winks had a good game for England against Bulgaria. Harry Kane likewise and former Spurs player Kieran Trippier too. The team tonight appeared far more focused, busy and determined to win than was the case against the Czech Republic.

 

[Jules77]

Winks was great tonight. I think that people who don't understand why Wink's is such a good footballer really just don't understand how the team game is played.