On the latest episode of the Last Word on Spurs podcast, Ricky Sacks, Jamie Brown, Abbi Summers, and guest Aaron Paul discussed the 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Friday night, as well as looking forward to the game against West Ham on Tuesday night.
The episode, which is titled: ‘Typical Tottenham‘ sees the quartet discuss Friday’s draw before looking ahead to the London derby against West Ham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday evening.
One topic of discussion was who they thought should feature in the defensive-midfield role against the Hammers.
Here’s what Sacks had to say about the midfield duo:
“Harry Winks, I think again, if you speak to so many Tottenham fans, there is still an uncertainty in terms of will he be good enough to feature in a Jose Mourinho team when everybody’s fit. We know that he’s been working a lot with Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp in terms of their central-defensive-midfield attributes. He’s been looking to try and build these guys up on the defensive side of the game, which clearly is a game plan Mourinho is going to continue to work with.
“We all want to see an attacking, vibrant Tottenham, that’s what we’re known for as a team, but clearly Mourinho, after spending three months in lockdown and having over 100 days with his Spurs coaching staff, maybe we’re going to have to get used to what we have seen over the last couple of months.”
TIF Thoughts…
Winks has struggled in his performances so far this season; averaging a 6.51 rating across his 24 appearances in the top-flight (per Whoscored).
Sacks is right to suggest that Mourinho has been working with both of his English midfielders during the enforced break, with Football.London suggesting that the Portuguese manager was working on Winks’ defensive side along with Skipp in preparation for the Premier League’s resumption.
Who would you rather see start against West Ham?
Harry Winks
Oliver Skipp
Skipp was enjoying a brief stint in the first-team before the enforced break, starting consecutive games against Norwich City and Burnley before the suspension of football.
It will be interesting to see if the 19-year-old continues to get first-team opportunities now that Mourinho has more of his squad available to him, but when considering the new substitutions rule that is in place for the remaining fixtures, you would hope that he would get some minutes on the pitch.