fudging Winks is such a disappointment for me. Really thought hed be a great player for us and the type of midfielder very few other clubs have. I don’t criticise him much because I want him to do well every game and he’s useless when he plays.
He had one opportunity first half today to release Reguilon with a 20 yard ball. It needed a good pass but not a particularly difficult one. He missed Reguilon by about 5 yards and landed it on the centre backs head. So, so disappointing.
Agreed. But, I guess to be fair to him, the role that he is good for never suited our game plan under Poch, Mourinho or Nuno.
Fact is, Winks is an excellent recycler of the ball. He takes it off one center-back and passes it to another.
He's not a good tackler, a good screen for the defense, a particularly good forward passer or a press-resistant midfielder...he takes the ball from one center back. He passes the ball back to the other. Simples. To me, to you.
Back when Winks was in his formative years, everyone tried to copy Barcelona's high-possession style, and key to it was what was perceived to be Xavi's game - constant ball recycling, to keep the tempo high and wear the opponents out.
I suspect Winks was brought up to play that way. More generally, Winks was a part of the McDermott approach to our academy recruitment in the late 2000s and 2010s - we wouldn't get the best kids in London, so McDermott looked for technical players overlooked by other clubs on account of their relative physical frailty. It produced some gems like Kane, but also a large number of physically slight central midfielders with names straight out of D.ickensian novels - Tom Carroll, Ryan Mason, and Harry Winks.
The problem is, Poch's style emphasised aggression and physical dominance. Winks doesn't have the latter, and his physique made him a bit limited at the former, although he tried. Mourinho wanted the midfield to screen the defense. Winks couldn't do that. Nuno wanted Winks (today) to play the Dele role. Winks couldn't do that, either.
And, more broadly, the role he is probably best suited for, recycling the ball, isn't really useful in modern football next to having a press-resistant player who can advance it. Even Guardiola moved away from it.
And so, we have Harry Winks. A player out of time, stuck in a world he can't quite adapt to.
Shame, but them's the breaks. Even with his limitations, he's managed a crap ton of games for us, which is a minor miracle. Just a shame he's been mostly crap in most of them.