Harry Winks - Player Thread | Vital Football

Harry Winks - Player Thread

I'm going to be writing a quick feature on Harry Winks and how he's got the potential to be the future of Englands midfield. Just looking for any comments from Spurs fans about Winks, mainly looking for opinions on how well he's playing at the moment and how he can get to the next level.
 
I'm going to be writing a quick feature on Harry Winks and how he's got the potential to be the future of Englands midfield. Just looking for any comments from Spurs fans about Winks, mainly looking for opinions on how well he's playing at the moment and how he can get to the next level.

There are a few good threads here on Harry (just search the threads for Winks in the title).

Not least of which is one that I started a couple of seasons back predicting he'd be the greatest midfielder we've ever produced and one of Englands brightest midfield prospects - of course his injury has set him back and progress may well depend on him eventually finding a way to be pain free (which he isn't now).

Key strengths are his ability to take a ball in half-spaces, shield it, retain control, his body shape and anticipation that allows him to always look for that incisive forward pass. His pace and movement across the pitch is intelligent and he reads the game as if he is a veteran.

If he has any weaknesses; it's his tackling, and his aerial ability he doesn't have amazing upper body strength so he has to improve his timing in the tackle and needs to work on his jumping.
 
Ex, you mentioned two of his weaknesses the third is shooting. I rarely see the classical head and knee over the ball technique, when he is addressing the ball to shoot. Consequently, many of his attempts balloon hide and wide, or are dragged wide as his head falls away out of symmetry with his body. A few technique issues to fix.
 
Ex, you mentioned two of his weaknesses the third is shooting. I rarely see the classical head and knee over the ball technique, when he is addressing the ball to shoot. Consequently, many of his attempts balloon hide and wide, or are dragged wide as his head falls away out of symmetry with his body. A few technique issues to fix.

yep, I think that's true too, although I've seen him shooting since he was around 10 and he actually does have a decent technique, I have a feeling this short coming is more one of composure at the moment - and it's my expecation that as he learns to go beyond the opps midfield at the right time, this will naturally come back to him.
 
yep, I think that's true too, although I've seen him shooting since he was around 10 and he actually does have a decent technique, I have a feeling this short coming is more one of composure at the moment - and it's my expecation that as he learns to go beyond the opps midfield at the right time, this will naturally come back to him.
I just love the way he plays the game, he is deceptively quick over 10 yards. As he gains in confidence I believe we will see better early forward passes something I think we are missing at the moment.
 
Winks is more akin to Busquets rather than Xavi or Iniesta.....If that makes any sense?

The more I see him, the more I think he should be playing deeper alongside a couple of more attacking players in a midfield 3 like Barca and Spain had a few years back. Always feel comfortable watching him take the ball off the centre halves and starting the moves. He's very comfortable with the ball in tight spaces and can retain possession and find players like Dele and Eriksen. He's also quite tenacious, full of running and intelligent at reading and shutting down opposition moves. Also get Ex's point about his actual tackling which can be improved along with his upper body strength. It would be a leap of faith to instal him as the deep lying midfielder over Dier and Wanyama but feeling that would be our best tactic this season.
 
I'm not so sure mutley, I would rather see him as first receiver from CB or DM pretty much as Xavi use to do with Busquets. I don't think he will ever have the physical attributes to play the DM role but I could be wrong.
 
I'm not so sure mutley, I would rather see him as first receiver from CB or DM pretty much as Xavi use to do with Busquets. I don't think he will ever have the physical attributes to play the DM role but I could be wrong.

lol - didn't they say that about Carrick and Pirlo?
 
Carrick is over 6' and Pirlo is a deep lying playmaker for me, I just think the way football is going DM needs to be either like Kante or powerful like Wanjama

Yeah, it's perhaps somewhere in between. Like Busquets he won't need a minder and can play either role as requires during the 90 mins. Was thinking on Saturday how good he could be with another player like himself i.e. Neves. The more ball players we have in the side working together in both defence and attack the better.
 
Yeah, it's perhaps somewhere in between. Like Busquets he won't need a minder and can play either role as requires during the 90 mins. Was thinking on Saturday how good he could be with another player like himself i.e. Neves. The more ball players we have in the side working together in both defence and attack the better.

Skipp is similar to Winks from what I have seen.
 
Yeah, it's perhaps somewhere in between. Like Busquets he won't need a minder and can play either role as requires during the 90 mins. Was thinking on Saturday how good he could be with another player like himself i.e. Neves. The more ball players we have in the side working together in both defence and attack the better.
We could drop Alli back in that position, he works hard and is not afraid to get stuck in.
 
Agree with both the observation on Skipp and the potential for Dele to move back to where he often played for MK Dons.

Barca fielded one of the best sides ever with Busquets/Toure, Iniesta, Xavi, Neymar, Suarez and Messi, wonder whether we should get Ossie back and field a side with Winks, Dele, Eriksen, Lamela, Moura and Kane in it. Pep probably would :-)
 
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino spoke to reporters after his side's Champions League win over PSV Eindhoven last night, and raved about the quality of Harry Winks, labelling the midfielder's performance as 'excellent', as quoted by Football.London.

Spurs went behind early against the Dutch outfit, but came back to win 2-1, keeping their dreams alive of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the competition in the process.



With Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele out injured, Poch had somewhat of a central midfield injury crisis on his hands, and Winks slotted into the deep-lying midfield role.

Pochettino spoke to reporters after Tottenham's last gasp-win, and took time to praise the 22-year-old, sharing how much of a challenge it was for him to play in a slightly different role to what he is used to, as quoted by Football.London:

mauricio_pochettino_manager_759505.jpg


"I think was very good, I'm so happy with him. He is playing a lot, played the last three games 90 minutes. The only way to grow is playing games, making mistakes and live the experience. I am so happy with him, today was to play alone like a holding midfielder with Christian and Dele Alli next to him. I think it was a massive challenge and I think his performance was very, very good. It was excellent."

Next up for Tottenham is a trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday evening, and Winks will be hoping for another chance to impress in the deep-lying midfield role.
 
Gotta admit Harry charging around the field breaking up play and passing FORWARD is a refreshing site. Although before he bust up his ankle I think we were all pretty enthusiastic about his future
 
He has the tools to be the next Modric. I hope that is where we see him in the future as we have been needing a tempo setter since he left.

We need a new DM, one that eats up the pitch with his athleticism, one that can tackle and pass, then we will have the perfect combo.
 
I thought Winks looked pretty good for England and Alli was playing a little deeper than he does for us. An article I read suggests Winks and Skipp could forge a new partnership in MF . I think I prefer Alli deeper, he has lots of energy and can defend plus reads the game well. With Amos still to come back and Wanyama possibly overcoming his troubles our MF might not suffer too much with Dembo going.
 
Dele's too important to our attack to drop him deeper, though he's capable of playing there well.

Kane thrives on Dele's assists. Dele also times his runs into the box brilliantly and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

We can find a cm partner for Winks externally I'm sure.