Tottenham 2017-18 Player Preview: Harry Winks

Let’s take 400 odd words in our Tottenham player preview and discuss what exactly feels reasonable to expect from Harry Winks.

This will be the second presumptive breakout season for the Tottenham academy graduate, as weird as that may seem.

Breakout is indeed an appropriate word to describe his first full season with the first team. The 20-year-old made his first start, scored his first goal and played over 1,100 minutes over four competitions.

Now 21, Winks is expected to build on that encouraging start and fight for a spot in the starting XI. That’s no small task though, and might be complicated further by any transfer business done between now and the end of the window.

Victor Wanyama’s lingering back strain will give Winks a leg up to start the season however. He will likely start alongside Mousa Dembélé as both players essentially share defensive duties in place of the Kenyan.

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That complicates Winks’ ascent more than it might seem. A start on opening day is certainly promising, but the fact is that neither Winks nor Dembélé are proper defensive midfielders in the way Wanyama is.

They will have to form a sort of double pivot to keep the midfield under control, and past experiments with such a partnership at Spurs are not encouraging. Note than neither Nabil Bentaleb nor Ryan Mason — the last midfielders tasked with such work — are no longer with the team after poor displays in Pochettino’s inaugural season.

Turning to Winks now is a matter of necessity though. With Eric Dier likely occupied at right-back following Kieran Trippier’s injury, Spurs simply lack another defensive midfielder. He will have to make do with the minutes granted to him, and if he succeeds here that only ups his chances of becoming a presumptive starter.

Winks stands to truly shine in a role more similar to Dembélé’s. He is more forward-thinking, able to drive possession forward and aid in the creativity of the attacking midfielders in front of him. If he can score or assist at at least a somewhat decent pace, that alone might give him the edge over Dembélé.

Even if the 30-year-old Belgian doesn’t appear to be slowing down, Winks will be there to capitalize on any minutes dropped once again. His worst case scenario for the coming season is another 1,000+ minutes and yet more experience on the way to eventually replacing Dembélé in the seasons to come.

Next: Newcastle v Tottenham match preview

Pochettino’s faith in Winks is evident, and while perhaps the hype surrounding him over the past two seasons can occasionally get overblown, there’s no doubting that he is on a fast track to regular starts.