So here's my theory. Spurs 1954 has a big part of the answer actually with the injury. OcDor has another based on some great players around him.
You have to go back to that big pre-season he had when he announced himself on the scene. Then look at the times he played with Big Vic in the 4-2-3-1. Then look at his excellent England performances. Look for patterns. Then think about the hopeless Sissoko and Hojbjerg partnerships since.
Winks best partnership was with Wanyama. Everyone assumed Winks would play ahead of Big Vic. What actually happened was that the young Winks could play the Scholesy schemer role but with a minder alongside him. Just like Keane did with Scholesly, the hard man would run beyond him. Winksy would take the ball in tight spaces, he would keep the ball away from the other player and he would retain possession. He also had a great forward pass in him and could carry the ball forward, but not as much as Wanyama did. Spurs players moved to receive the ball in those days.
Spurs centre midfield has been a mess for years. Firstly, Dier tried to carry it on his own as Wanyama, Dembele and Winks just weren't fit for selection. Ably supported by Eriksen and Dele who sacrificed their own strengths to get deeper and deeper, especially Christian. Then they had their meltdowns. In the middle of all that, Sissoko came along and just played for himself. Christian got even deeper and finally quit on the water carrying role to allow Sissoko to do what he wanted. The most irresponsible centre mid out of the lot of them. Useless buy. Finally Hojbjerg, who is a very poor man's Wanyama. If it wasn't bad enough having a poor man's Scholesy in Winksy.
These phases all meant that Winks had to change himself from Scholes to Makelele, a role he's not equipped for. He also let himself get into those backwards and sideway passes habits, as moving off the ball become extinct under all of our managers since Poch, including the incumbent.
All we can do is move on though. We need to stop comparing Hojbjerg and Winksy as even Dier got crocked eventually. There was no defensive midfielder. Neither Pierre or Winksy are good enough. We need to be comparing them to Wanyama and Dembele. Neither come close. Winksy is naturally a very gifted player. Hojbjerg isn't, but the net, net is the same from both of them in their contribution. I have a feeling Skipp will go the same way as well.
Keep Skipp, sell the other two and hope that Sarr is the French Bellingham. I also hope that Bissouma isn't convicted and slots in with Bentancur.
