Kieran Horn asks: “Is Harry Winks the future of Spurs and England’s midfield?”
In previous years the England midfield has been dominated by some of the best players to play the beautiful game. The likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and so many more excellent players have represented their country in the middle of the park. But in recent years the three lions midfield has been a shell of what it once used to be. Players like Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere have had opportunities to perform at the international level but haven’t lived up to the quality of their predecessors. England need someone who can read the game excellently, someone who’s not afraid to push forward with the ball and someone with raw passion who will give his all for 90 minutes and that player can be Harry Winks.
At only 5ft 10” and 65KG, Winks could easily be written off as being ‘not strong enough’ for the modern-day game to be able to compete in the centre of midfield, but the Spurs starlight more than makes up for this with his ability to read the game while his side are in and out of possession.
Harry Winks, 22, has spent his entire youth and senior career with boyhood club Tottenham Hotspur, making a total of 32 appearances for the academy before receiving his competitive debut in a Europa League group match against FK Partizan which his side won 1-0.
Despite being called up to the first team and regularly training with them Winks continued to play for the reserves where he shined in both the holding midfield role and as a central midfielder.
After being an unused substitute 5 times in the 2015/16 campaign and a few cameo appearances at the beginning of the 2016/17 campaign. Winks finally made his first Premier League start in a London Derby against West Ham where the youngster repaid the faith Mauricio Pochettino showed in him with a dominant midfield performance that included getting his name on the scoresheet helping Spurs to a 3-2 win over one of their bitter rivals.
Following on from his impressive display against West Ham, Winks went on to play a part in 21 premier league games continuing to impress his boss. However, most of his minutes that season came in both the FA cup and EFL cup.
Spurs were then drawn in the same Champions League group as Real Madrid where Winks played a total of 156 minutes, including the full 90 minutes at the Bernabéu where Winks held his own against two of the best midfielders in the world in Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, helping his side to an impressive point at the home of the European champions. Winks then repeated his performance two weeks later at Wembley, helping Spurs claim a historic 3 points against the Spanish giants.
Spurs fans have high praise for Winks with one Vital Football user saying, ‘I just love the way he plays the game, he is deceptively quick over 10 yards’ and another user suggested that ‘He’s very comfortable with the ball in tight spaces and can retain possession’.
However, there are still tweaks Winks needs to make in his game, ‘if he has any weaknesses; it’s his tackling, and his aerial ability he doesn’t have amazing upper body strength’ said by another Vital Football user. Along with this, injuries have been a concern for Winks where he’s missed a total off 24 games in 2 seasons through a severe ankle injury, holding him back from reaching his full potential.
One of the most discussed topics surrounding Winks is fans trying to figure out his best position if he is to have a successful international career. Some say the deep-lying playmaker role is more suited to how he wants to play but playing as a central midfielder would give him more of an opportunity to drive at defenders and use his excellent vision to pick out teammates.
With only 2 senior international appearances to his name some England fans may not even be considering Winks to be the solution to the problems in the midfield, but Spurs fans especially know how good Winks really is and if any manager was to trust Winks in England’s midfield it would be Gareth Southgate so why not give him a chance?
With thanks to Kieran Horn