Harry Winks

[Arkie Bennett]

15 minutes ago, funkyrobot said:

I don’t think the stats thing is entirely a fair criticism and it’s certainly not for a significant period of time. Almost all of our wins are outliers this season. Most won games are ones that statistically we should’ve lost and we’ve won them through wonder goals from James and Fatawu and occasionally from The Ghost of Bobby Reid. If you want to go with stats then we’ve had a higher XG against us in most games including those games that Winks didn’t play. We’ve just been lucky.
 

We are more likely to create opportunities if we play those players that are likely to be able to take the ball on the half turn and actually progress the ball up the pitch & that’s why Winks should play and not Skipp. I don’t care what has happened in the past. I don’t care if Winks is suddenly motivated by maximising his potential for a good move in the summer I just think we are better playing our better footballers and in midfield I think that’s JJ, Winks and Mukasa. If Skipp was an effective CDM then things might be different but he isn’t. 

I think the games played/matches won stat is crude and pointless, and can easily be used in any argument for or against the inclusion of any player. Winks's presence or absence hasn't made a significant difference either way. There are far too many other factors that collectively influence the outcome of a game than to hinge it on one player.

 

 

[old koppite]

2 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

I don’t agree Winks was poor no. I thought he was overrun 2nd half after they changed their system because he had nothing next to him. I thought him and Ricardo came out with some credit but that’s about it for the outfield players. 

We’ll have to disagree - he was poor 2nd half. Good and influential first half, good at Stoke and Boro. 
For an ex England and Spurs midfielder at his footballing peak ( which I think is still seen at 28?) he couldn’t read what was going on , couldn’t do anything about it, couldn’t talk to Skipp or team mates, or tell the bench and was skinned at least once as I remember by their cracking midfielder. At 1-0 and 2-0 reverted to his usual safe passing, strolling around , with no sprints or runs to break their lines. I remember 1 corner second half caused a bit of rare worry for their keeper, but the next corner didn’t beat the first man. Just not consistent enough. 

[JimJams]

Winks is a wet blanket who can pass a bit and receive the ball under a bit of pressure. But from a defensive standpoint he's weak as piss. Calls for him to partner JJ will see us ran through.  Winks performed well when there were 2 box to box 8's and Ricardo inverting alongside him to help with defensive duties. 3 players. In a system with a 10 and without a fullback to back him up in the midfield, he's toast. 

[Dmitry]

41 minutes ago, JimJams said:

Winks is a wet blanket who can pass a bit and receive the ball under a bit of pressure. But from a defensive standpoint he's weak as piss. Calls for him to partner JJ will see us ran through.  Winks performed well when there were 2 box to box 8's and Ricardo inverting alongside him to help with defensive duties. 3 players. In a system with a 10 and without a fullback to back him up in the midfield, he's toast. 

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

[Lookatthebluesky]

I don’t think that he had a great game on Saturday but technically he’s head and shoulders above most of our squad. Imagine being a midfielder for us and see that your forward options are the likes of Daka, Ayew, BCDR when you’ve received the ball. He’s playing with absolute duffers and the frustration is apparent. 
 

He was different class when he last appeared in this league under Enzo but he had KDH & Vardy as outlets to work with then.

[Dan]

10 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

5 wins in how many starts? 35? @Dan

 

Dropped as soon as JJ is match fit please.

I make it 35 yep.

 

In interests of fairness he came at half time of Southampton away in 2024 when 2-0 down and we won.

 

But our record with him on the pitch is genuinely rubbish, it's worse than without him.

[Dmitry]

5 minutes ago, Lookatthebluesky said:

I don’t think that he had a great game on Saturday but technically he’s head and shoulders above most of our squad. Imagine being a midfielder for us and see that your forward options are the likes of Daka, Ayew, BCDR when you’ve received the ball. He’s playing with absolute duffers and the frustration is apparent. 
 

He was different class when he last appeared in this league under Enzo but he had KDH & Vardy as outlets to work with then.

In the Norwich game he made some excellent long passes to Daka and Fatawau. The former couldn't do a thing (expected by all but Rowett), while the latter thought (perhaps wrongly) that he channeled Diego Maradona. 

[funkyrobot]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

I make it 35 yep.

 

In interests of fairness he came at half time of Southampton away in 2024 when 2-0 down and we won.

 

But our record with him on the pitch is genuinely rubbish, it's worse than without him.

You genuinely think we lose games because of one player? That’s bizarre and clearly not true. 
 

Winks is quite clearly the superior footballer compared to the guy next to him in Skipp. He retains possession, plays on the half turn, actually plays the ball forwards. Skipp just doesn’t/can’t do that. Winks hasn’t had the extended chance to play with JJ alongside him like Skipp has. He now needs to be deployed alongside JJ for the next few games or if not him Aribo next to JJ assuming he can also play on the half turn. When Winks played earlier in the season JJ was employed as a 10. James carried Skipp through the vast majority of those usually lucky wins.
 

You have to try and dominate the midfield battle in The Championship. The best way our midfield can do that is by having the ball. We can’t keep hiding the fact that one of our central midfielders doesn’t impact the game with the ball and doesn’t do anywhere near enough ‘successful’ off the ball work to justify the praise he gets for being ‘busy.’

[honeybradger]

11 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

If you genuinely think Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric would get outplayed by a midfield of Sam Field and Kenny McClean then you're out of your mind.

 

All of them proven at champions league level, the gap between them and Winks who hasn't even proven himself at Premier League level is huge.

 

Forget world class midfielders, if we had a Premier proven midfielder like Tielemans or Dewsbury Hall or Elliot Andersen or Bruno guimaraes instead of Winks we would be far better off.

Edited 2 March by honeybradger

[Finnegan]

11 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

 

 

[James_lcfc]

11 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

Drop 2015/16 Kante into this team and we'd win all the remaining games.

 

Genuinely believe that.

[Danizen]

11 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

I think this is the worst take on this forum since that guy suggested Sir Alex should manage England via Skype.

[Finnegan]

3 minutes ago, James_lcfc said:

Drop 2015/16 Kante into this team and we'd win all the remaining games.

 

Genuinely believe that.

 

To win games you got to score as well as keep teams out. We need a one man team, a world class talent all round the pitch. Someone capable of taking hold of a match and making it his own. 

 

We don't need Kante 2015, we need Koumas 2005.

 

[Chrysalis]

On 01/03/2026 at 09:38, Claridge said:

Flatters to deceive, tidy with his short passing in our half, but doesn't seem to do much in the opposition half creating very little. Cant tackle either. Much rather see skipp and James together for the next game

He seems to go completely missing when we dont have the ball.  

[Katy]

This thread makes me nauseous. Having to go cap in hand by playing him to help us avoid relegation. I bet his already massive ego was already through the roof. 

[Dan]

6 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

You genuinely think we lose games because of one player? That’s bizarre and clearly not true. 
 

Winks is quite clearly the superior footballer compared to the guy next to him in Skipp. He retains possession, plays on the half turn, actually plays the ball forwards. Skipp just doesn’t/can’t do that. Winks hasn’t had the extended chance to play with JJ alongside him like Skipp has. He now needs to be deployed alongside JJ for the next few games or if not him Aribo next to JJ assuming he can also play on the half turn. When Winks played earlier in the season JJ was employed as a 10. James carried Skipp through the vast majority of those usually lucky wins.
 

You have to try and dominate the midfield battle in The Championship. The best way our midfield can do that is by having the ball. We can’t keep hiding the fact that one of our central midfielders doesn’t impact the game with the ball and doesn’t do anywhere near enough ‘successful’ off the ball work to justify the praise he gets for being ‘busy.’

Not necessarily but this is a player who has continuously taken the piss, a player who we turn back to despite this and a player for whom the record doesn't actually reflect well on - certainly not somebody we should be going cap in hand to anyway.

 

@inckley fox post in the last couple of pages summed this all up better than me. Winks has been proven to not be a particularly effective player in anything other than a system where we heavily dominated possession and had in general a team far better than than the competition at the time. He's lacking defensively, isn't really creative in a conventional sense, hardly ever scores. He's got one thing he's good at and it's not actually all that effective when you take it out of a team that had far better players than the opposition.

 

We also don't dominate the midfield battle with him playing either. I could understand some of the pass he gets if he didn't have the track record he does. Unfortunately because of the shambolic recruitment and total neglect of this position (which people on here were telling me at the time wasn't an issue) we go cap in hand to him.

[Dan]

16 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

My hand is on my heart.

[old koppite]

17 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

Goodness me! Just thinking about Scholes’ control, passing ,  tenacity energy and shooting ; similar with Beckham’s plus just the explosive energy of his running which would lift any team mate; and being fortunate enough to see Kante for us at Norwich away and being gobsmacked to this day to remember he was everywhere and could take the ball off the opposition with ease, I believe hand on heart that any of those  would do much better even with our squad and inspire them more than  Winks! 

[orangecity23]

Just got a mental image of Beckham getting the ball on the right wing, delivering a wicked cross into the box where there are none of our players, then 5 seconds later Ayew walks up slowly behind him and says "nice cross mate. Who was that for?"

[honeybradger]

42 minutes ago, orangecity23 said:

Just got a mental image of Beckham getting the ball on the right wing, delivering a wicked cross into the box where there are none of our players, then 5 seconds later Ayew walks up slowly behind him and says "nice cross mate. Who was that for?"

 

 

Couldn't help but laugh when I imagined Daka at the end of this cross.

 

A missed shot is better than no shots at least which is what we get with Winks.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Just watched a documentary about the 2018-19 Champions League competition, Winks played in the final, couldn’t believe it 😂 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

On 01/03/2026 at 21:44, Dmitry said:

Imagine Scholes, Beckham, Kante, Xavi, Modric in his place right now, in this very squad, and tell me, with a hand on your heart, that any of them would've done a lot better than Winks. 

 

100% they would have, any of them would have had an enormous impact on us. 
Not sure why you’d think otherwise, unless you’re placing Winks in the same bracket as those you’ve mentioned.

 

Edited 3 March by Mark 'expert' Lawrenson

[Long Eaton Fox]

On 01/03/2026 at 14:30, Chelmofox said:

Hahahahah! 2 days ago you got laughed at for saying they should be out of the team. 

Me?  I'm desperate to find a team to win a game. We can. James will  inspire us. 

[don_danbury]

142 pages on Harry winks 😂 

[gerblod]

19 hours ago, James_lcfc said:

Drop 2015/16 Kante into this team and we'd win all the remaining games.

 

Genuinely believe that.

He'd lead by example. They'd all (bar James) be complaining that he was overworking them.