Agree with the sentiment Rocky, but whether it’s the direction from Poch or his own lack of ambition, but he has seemingly turned into a ‘sideways/backwards’-only midfielder. Very frustrating! And his apparent reluctance to go into tackles last night doesn’t bode well for a combative midfield role. To be fair, as PNP pointed out, he did improve when he moved into the centre in the 2nd half.
It was an odd game. Every Spurs player was mediocre until about the hour mark and then we played pretty well as a team only to get sloppy at the end. Winks did at least try to be inventive. I quite liked the venue although getting out of the car park took ages.
Got home just before 2 am and went straight to bed. Lucky that I got some kip in the first half or I'd still be there! It's a good stadium and in some ways, a shame that having a league club there hasn't been more of a success for the town, if not the owner. It doesn't surprise me that we were so bad for an hour. We've been just as bad, if not worse, against much more limited teams than Watford's seconds in cup games where we've changed the entire team. Still, a number of players who badly needed game time, got it. Sissoko played well and Winksy improved after we played him in his natural position. Sonny looked brighter when he came on. It's a real shame that Serge Aurier is going to be out for a while. He's been much improved lately. Yes, he got completely out muscled by Success, however, that guy's some unit. Last night was a guarded success. Yes, nobody really wanted to play there but the hacks aren't railing about it. It's good to hear MP thanking the fans for the support. He was interviewed after that FIFA jolly and was saying that his driver was a Spurs fan and how big the club was and how great the fans are. I really believe that we are the glue that will stick things together this season and we need to show up and get behind a tired team and drag some performances out of some. Barcelona's a sell out but the Cardiff game will be in a half empty Wembley. We need to be noisy. Having the draw at 9 pm on Saturday shows where this cup's ended up in everyone's priorities. Absolutely stupid.
I seem to recall that being an issue with him when he came back from an ankle injury last season too. Best get a sports psychologist in...
I only saw goal and near miss highlights on Sky Sports News, but Winks actually seemed to grow into the game, made a few top class passes from what I saw of, admittedly brief, highlights.
Winks hasn’t progressed into the midfielder we hoped he would. I think he’s first to go if Poch can get a replacement in.
The problem with Winks is that I feel there's too much sentiment clouding people's judgement. "But he was great against Real Madrid" yep, he definitely was, although he's played about 50-60 other games and how many others can you remember him excelling in? "But he's returning from injury" ok for sure, it takes some a while to get up to full match speed but what's his excuse for when he was fully fit and still not offering anything? In fact, having just checked Transfermarkt, Winks has played 67 first team games for the club, has one goal (his full debut vs West Ham) and two assists (one was for the Aurier fluke-cross-shot goal vs Brighton). I'm not someone that purely uses stats to judge a player but when a player who I feel offers next to nothing in the games he plays in and then has stats that are far from desirable, it's hardly as if the negativity and criticism towards him that I and maybe one or two others have given is unjust. Sorry guys but Winks is essentially our Wilshire. Everyone loves him because he's "one of our own" but the truth is he's just not good enough, maybe 5 years ago when our aspirations weren't as high he'd have been ok but if we want to solidify ourselves as regular title challengers/ potential trophy winners, Winks isn't someone we should be relying on. We ideally need 7 to 8 out of 10 calibre players/ performances on most weeks, Winks is a 5, 6 at very best. Hindsight is obviously a wonderful gift but the club made a huge mistake when we sold Mason to accomodate Winks into the side, the former was so much better.
His last ditch tackle was phenomenal. Had a touch of the Ledley's about it. Agreed, the goal wasn't his fault, Success was Successful (I know, I'm too slick) in getting behind the CBs and Aurier was unable to help them out due to Success's strength. I'd say Aurier has now gone from "Oh my god why is he starting!?" to "Ok, let's see what he can do". Maybe Poch's record with FBs will remain at 100% with regards to developing top FB after top FB?
I guess it's my turn to point this out... Modric's return for Tottenham: 17 goals and 27 assists in 160 games Lamela's return for Tottenham: 26 goals and 39 assists in 159 games One's a player we've been crying out for a replacement for six years, the other has been a lightning rod for the fan's frustrations for the past five (at least until Sissoko arrived, anyway...)
Screwing over Wimbledon has probably held them back, when you look at the overall picture. If they'd have started from scratch and worked their way up to where they are now, then they'd be getting all kinds of plaudits. Trying to take a shortcut has shafted them in the long run and it's fully deserved.
That’s why I said I don’t purely judge solely on stats alone. Modric and Lamela are two great players regardless of their stats, Modric is in fact the best I’ve seen at Spurs in my lifetime. Winks however is not a good player. People just want him to be. Edit: to rephrase - people want to believe Winks is a good player rather than acknowledging he isn’t.
It's deserved by the owner and football authorities. The move should never have been allowed, no matter what the financial issues. Whether it should be a cloud over them forever? I don't know that it should, but it probably will. However, the preference for supporting a big PL club over your local team is what's killing them and a lot of other clubs. The owners bought entry into the league at an artificially high level but ultimately, you can't defeat the reality of the situation. It's a club that has no history and plays at a level that struggles to get a crowd to do justice to that stadium. Barring a miracle, that's unlikely to change in my lifetime.
I believe I suggested it a few games back, but we do appear to be trying to transform Winks from a possession-based central midfielder (read: 90% of his passes are five yards or less and sideways) like Henderson and are trying to deploy him as more of a Modric/Xavi-style playmaker, and it's clear to see with some of the passes he's attempting. The problem is there's several issues with this i.) He's having to adapt on the job, as he didn't have a pre-season while also losing a lot of playing time in the last two seasons, which is always risky ii.) Whatever you say, missing half a season with injury for the past two seasons is going to affect his development iii.) He clearly hasn't mentally adapted to the role, because while he's shown he's capable of defence-splitting passes in the past few games he doesn't have the instinct to retain possession or look for the pass - which isn't an issue Modric, Xavi, Iniesta, Rakitic or Pirlo ever seemed to have as they instinctively knew what to do with the ball before it was even at their feet I wouldn't say that fans are convincing themselves that Winks is better than he is, certainly when you compare him to people trying to convince themselves Loftus-Cheek was England's secret weapon during the World Cup, although fans already dubbing him "Winksiesta" really should have a word with themselves
Agree with pretty much all of that, although mason didn’t massively impress me either. I think he was better than winks, but I think many fans would be saying similar about mason to what you’re saying about winks if mason was still playing. Sentiment again, IMO. It baffles me how some of our fans literally can’t stand Lamela. It’s glaringly obvious what we miss when he’s out injured. I can understand him not being a favourite perhaps, but the **** he has had, and still gets on social media is really odd.
