Danny Murphy heaped lots of praise of Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks after watching the player feature against Fulham on Sunday.
The BBC pundit shared that with Mousa Dembele having left Spurs recently he needed a new player to eulogise and had found one in the form of the 22-year-old central midfielder.
Murphy complimented several aspects of Winks’ game and raved about how influential he was in particular during Spurs’ 2-1 victory against Fulham.
“Well I needed a new person to eulogise about after my mate Mousa Dembele left, Mousa’s gone and Harry Winks was here,” said Murphy on BBC Match of the Day 2 (Sunday January 20th, 10:46).
“What a good young player he is, I’ve been banging a drum about him for a while, I’ve seen him live several times and he is very well thought of at Tottenham.
“His touch map shows how influential he was in this game, the belief he has got in himself, I love his variation, he’s all over the place, he looks really fit and hungry.
“He looks sharp, he looks hungry, he’s got that tenacity about him, he’s snapping at people, he deals with danger well, I like the fact when he passes the ball he tries to be positive and pass it forward at the right times.
“Here it’s not just ball to feet, he’s choosing the moments to run in behind, can he make a decent pass in that final third? Yes. More often than not he does and it was a very mature performance and it reminded me of seeing him in the Madrid games last year when he first burst on to scene, people starting noticed and he got into the England squad.
“The energy and fitness I’m talking about to want to score a goal, this is your holding midfielder with a minute left, look him, doesn’t stop, desperate to win the game and I think he is capable of scoring more goals and I think that will come.”
OPINION
It seems Murphy is in mourning over Spurs selling Dembele, like a few fans no doubt are given the impact he made for the club, but the pundit has already managed to find another player to wax lyrical about. The pundit was clearly blown away by Winks’ display on Sunday as he can’t seem to say enough nice words about him and it’s easy to see why. The midfielder was key in Mauricio Pochettino’s side being able to beat Fulham as for a last portion of that game, the Premier League strugglers looked on course to deny Spurs all three points. Yet players such as Winks kept going until the very end and this saw Spurs get the win at the death. While Murphy is backing Winks to score more goals in his career, that was only his second Premier League goal on Sunday, it’s doubtful that he’ll get many more headers. Winks’ goal against Fulham came from him heading the ball home and given his stature it was quite a surprise that he got to show off his aerial prowess.