Football analyst, podcaster and Tottenham Hotspur fan Nathan Clark spent some time talking about Harry Winks on the latest edition of The Extra Inch podcast.
It may be fair to say that Winks has struggled on the pitch this season. He is currently the lowest-rated (6.22) Tottenham player to have started a top-flight game this term, according to WhoScored.
Clark shared a mixed assessment of the 24-year-old during this recent edition of The Extra Inch podcast. He acknowledged that the Spurs academy graduate can produce “good performances” on the pitch but then he also stated that he thinks Winks is “inconsistent” and suggested that his future may lie elsewhere, saying:
“He is an inconsistent player who needs the right circumstances in terms of the opposition and the way that they play. When he plays well, it’s not recognised, and when he plays badly, it is.
“Maybe managers are much more aware of his strengths and his positives and the fans are not and he’s just a bit of a whipping boy – which is a shame, because he is a talented player who is capable of good performances, he just probably needs a slightly lower level than what we’re aspiring to and that’s it.”
Does Winks have a future at Spurs?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Clark had to say about Winks…
While it may be fair to say that Winks hasn’t produced many impressive performances this season, he has mainly played in a defensive midfield position, according to WhoScored, and it has been suggested in the past that Winks prefers to play slightly further up the pitch.
Football.london’s Rob Guest speculated that this is how the £25.2m-rated man would be used following the arrival of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg during the summer but it would seem that this hasn’t been the case and perhaps that hasn’t helped Winks to produce his best for the north London club this term.
Hojbjerg has also mainly been used in a defensive midfield position this term and as per FBref, some of Winks’ defensive stats pale in comparison to the Dane’s.
Winks has tackled just one-third of the dribblers who have contested a duel with him in the Premier League this term, with two-thirds of those dribblers successfully passing him, while Hojbjerg has tackled more than half of the dribblers who have contested a duel with him. Winks has also failed to make a single interception in the league this season, while Hojbjerg has made four – the joint-most of any Spurs player.
Perhaps this shows that Winks is not as good as Hojbjerg at preventing the opposition from getting past him and maybe this is one reason why the Englishman may not be suited to the defensive midfield position and might be better suited to playing further up the pitch, with more players behind him to provide cover. This may give us an indication of why he has struggled so much this season.
It may be understandable why Winks’ performances this term seem to have convinced Clark that he is not up to Spurs’ standard but maybe a different role would help the 24-year-old to produce better performances.