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Mauricio Pochettino hails 'perfect midfielder' Harry Winks & reveals why he's so special to him

The manager has been gushing about the young Tottenham midfielder

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ByAlasdair Gold

12:00, 29 SEP 2017


Mauricio Pochettino has hailed his young Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Winks as the "perfect midfielder".

Winks put his recent injury woes behind him to impress in Tottenham's 3-0 Champions League victory at Apoel Nicosia on Tuesday night.

A freak ankle injury at Burnley on April 1 robbed Winks of the chance to complete an excellent breakthrough season under Mauricio Pochettino and go to the European U21 Championships.

It also left him with pain in his ankle that stuck with him throughout his summer rehabilitation and into the early weeks of Tottenham's season.

It was only in the week leading up to his first start in the Carabao Cup that Winks was finally pain-free. That match against Barnsley was about restoring confidence in his ankle and getting some minutes back into his legs.

Harry Winks has a fan in manager Mauricio Pochettino

Against Apoel it was about trying to get back to the levels of last season and he managed that and left his manager very impressed once again.

"For me, he is the perfect midfielder, who can play box-to-box and like a holding midfielder. He has the quality and the capacity to play and use the demand of the game and read it," said Pochettino.


"He's so clever, and we are so happy that he starts to feel better now because he provides to the team qualities that we don’t have. He is completely different to our other midfielders like Wanyama, Eric Dier, Mousa Dembele and Mousa Sissoko. He has the quality that can add to the team are completely different."


When asked whether Winks could be key to unlocking stubborn defences, especially at Wembley, Pochettino added: "Yes. He is one of the options we have in different games to use. And we celebrate that, because to have the possibility to have him on the team provides us with more quality and more options to play in a different way."


Some have compared Winks to his team-mate Christian Eriksen, but the Spurs boss does not see it.

“I think he’s different, it’s difficult to compare one with another. It’s bad to compare two players," he said. "I think both are so good and both fit perfectly for us. But in different aspects, they are different."
 
He's looking Modricesque and a large hint of Scotty Parker about him now.

As I've been saying for a long time; he has it in him to be the best midfielder we've produced since the PL started, and if he can get in an injury free season, a certain call up to the England squad - and he could easily make his international name in the WC and become almost, I did say almost as big a name as the Harry in front of him.
 
I too have been saying how good he is / can be, and listed him in the 4 players we have to keep in a previous recent thread.

Don't see much Modric or Parker and it is hard to compare him to others, but he reminds me a bit of a younger Perryman when he was in midfield. As that is some 40-45 years ago, my memory could be playing tricks.
 
If he starts to tackle like Parker he will be even better. He has the right turns mastered. How is Scotty doing ? Anyone know ? All the kids he coaches should tackle like feck then do some twirls to create space !!!
 
Agree NRD once he masters his tackling he will be one hell of a player. He already has the vision, control. The way he already controls games speaks volumes about how good he will become.

Once Moose is moved on sod buying a replacement let Winks be our number 1 CM.
 
One of my favourite players to watch already. In Dembele, Eriksen and Parker he has 3 excellent role models to progress 3 different aspects of his game to become an exceptional complete midfielder.
 
He has a good solid game in most aspects but I have no idea how he would cope in goal scoring situations. Would like to see him exposed to this and whether he can maintain technique & show composure to finish.
 
He is calm does the basics extremely well and is not flash...goes about his business in a professional way...he will grow into our new 'Perryman' type player (when Steve played in the middle not the back).

Annuver one of our own! :1:
 
Nick Real Deal - 29/9/2017 20:35

If he starts to tackle like Parker he will be even better. He has the right turns mastered. How is Scotty doing ? Anyone know ? All the kids he coaches should tackle like feck then do some twirls to create space !!!
Click to expand...

He's doing extremely well, my bet is he'll be in management in an assistant coaches role within a couple of years.

Spurs hierarchy love him.
 
I've said this for ages but England should have been using Winks for the last 20-30 mins of games for a while now. For me, he is a shoe in to go the world cup and I'm really happy for him that he's finally got the call up yesterday.
 
Well I didn't expect it this early, especially as I don't think he's fully back to form and fitness yet, certainly much sooner than I expected, but if he was in with a shout for next year, then I guess now is the time to find out.

Well done Gareth, and well done Harry.
 
Harry Winks’ Dembele-esque skillset explains his value to England

Being English and receiving one-to-one tuition from Mauricio Pochettino is virtually a guarantee of a senior international call-up these days with Harry Winks the latest player to benefit from the Argentine’s expertise.

Should Winks debut for England against either Slovenia or Lithuania, it will mean that 14 of England’s last 29 debutants have been coached by Pochettino before their first call-up. Winks’ teammate Kieran Trippier became the latest to do so against France in June.

The 21-year-old midfielder has featured for England at all age levels from U17 upwards, has captained his country at youth level and was set to start for the U21s in their games against Scotland and Andorra before being parachuted into Gareth Southgate’s senior squad.

Reaction to Winks’ call-up has been somewhat sceptical with plenty of people quick to point out Winks’ lack of regular first-team football with his club but realistically there were few other viable candidates for Southgate to call upon.

image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GettyImages-624387042.jpg

Mauricio Pochettino trusts Harry Winks implicitly.

Now that Winks is in the England squad what attributes does he bring that Southgate’s other midfield players lack and how does he compare to some of the players who missed out?
Playing style

When Winks made his breakthrough into the Spurs squad last year it quickly became apparent that he was extremely accomplished with the ball at his feet by rarely misplacing a pass.

While initially, Winks naturally took the safe option with his passing, a goal against West Ham on his first Premier League start (fifth top-flight game overall) resulted in him playing with more confidence and freedom.

In his debut Premier League season, Winks achieved a pass accuracy rate of 91% – only bettered in the Spurs squad by Mousa Dembele – with just under two-thirds (57.1%) of his total passes going forward to a teammate in an advanced position on the pitch.

Winks’ propensity to recycle the ball and retain possession comfortably was evident during Spurs’ Champions League game against CSKA Moscow at Wembley last December, when he completed 107/112 (96%) attempted passes which was the sixth-highest total of any player in that gameweek.

He has been similarly resourceful on the ball this season, averaging an 87% pass accuracy rate across five appearances in the Premier League which incidentally is superior to his competitors in the England squad, Jordan Henderson (75%) and Jake Livermore (79%) and only fractionally worse than his clubmate Eric Dier (88%).

image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GettyImages-854206664.jpg

Harry Winks could feature alongside his clubmate Eric Dier in England’s engine room.

A potential criticism levelled at Winks is that he isn’t creative enough with only nine chances created (and one solitary assist) to show from his 26 Premier League appearances to date.

However, quite simply, creating chances is not his job in the Spurs side, with Christian Eriksen, the full-backs and to an extent, Dele Alli, tasked with supplying chances for Harry Kane to finish off. Instead, Winks’ role is to keep the ball moving quickly and accurately around the pitch and he does that extremely well.

It is important to note that Winks isn’t solely a pass-master as over the past few months he has shown an increased urgency to carry the ball forward himself, using his good close control, deceptive burst of pace and low centre of gravity to evade opponents and move his team up the pitch.

This was most recently demonstrated during Spurs’ 3-0 win over APOEL in the Champions League, when Winks received the ball in his own half, turned out of trouble and dribbled past two men to spark a counter-attack, only to be hauled to the floor before he was able to release a pass.

image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Winks.png

Winks completed all four of his take on attempts against APOEL in the Champions League.

With question marks lingering over how long Mousa Dembele can continue playing at such a high level given he is now in his 30s and succumbing more frequently to injury, it appears as though Winks is being primed to take over his role long-term. Winks clearly holds his teammate in high regard, saying of his teammate last season: “[Dembele’s] different class with his balance, his strength and his technique – he’s one of the best I’ve ever played with in my life.”

England have been crying out for a box-to-box midfield player for some time, which is why Roy Hodgson was so desperate to include Jack Wilshere in his Euro 2016 squad at the expense of Danny Drinkwater, despite the fact the Arsenal midfielder had featured for just 146 minutes in the Premier League that season.

Despite growing up supporting different teams in North London, there are plenty of similarities to Winks and Wilshere’s style of play in midfield, yet the Spurs man has benefited from more top-level football since the start of last season.

Southgate’s decision to call-up Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah after a handful of promising displays for them at the start of the season showed that he wants to add more dynamism to his England midfield. But with Chalobah injured and a revitalised (albeit playing at left back) Fabian Delph withdrawing from the squad, there weren’t too many box-to-box options for Southgate to call upon.

image: http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Winks-vs-other-midfielders.png

How Winks compares per-90 to English central midfielders who didn’t make the squad.

Some fans have championed Jonjo Shelvey’s cause but he isn’t that kind of player and is used in a similar deep-lying playmaker role to Henderson and Dier. Others have called for Wilshere off the back of a couple of promising Europa League displays but his failure to secure any minutes in the Premier League is perhaps why he has been left out. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, a player utilised heavily by Southgate at youth level could also have been in contention despite Crystal Palace’s dire start to the season.

Perhaps of all the central midfield players that Southgate might have been tempted to select, Everton’s Tom Davies had as big a claim as any, considering he has been a key player for his side since breaking into the first-team last season.

While not as accurate in his passing, Davies has shown more in an attacking sense than Winks thus far but on this occasion, Southgate might have gone for the Spurs man giving he is two years older and has slightly more top-level experience.

Winks’ call-up might seem premature given he has yet to fully establish himself as a key component of the Tottenham side, but plenty of England’s key players such as Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli were also integrated into the squad ahead of schedule due to a lack of alternatives.

England’s dearth of central midfield options right now means that Southgate has to take chances on relatively unproven players and while Winks might not have played much football this season after overcoming an ankle injury, his skill-set offers England something different in midfield.

Read more at http://www.squawka.com/news/harry-winks-dembele-esque-skillset-explains-his-value-to-england-analysis/995964#hmgxICbWljmAVBXU.99
 
He is drawing great praise from pundits and Alli predicted 5 years ago Winks would hit the big time . As has been said, he started playing very safe and within himself but I think there is far more to come when he starts expressing himself. His passing stats are up there with Dembele although I think his forward pass percentage is higher.
 
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