Spurs’ midfield dilemmas
Risk adverse, sideways passing, lacking physicality and poor off the ball positioning. These are the reasons usually given for not using Harry Winks in Tottenham’s midfield. He emerged in the 2016/17 season as a promising young midfielder, making regular appearances off the bench. He’s gone on to play over 5500 minutes for Spurs since.
This morning I read this article on the Athletic about him and his resurgance, which is worth a read. I went to tweet about it but thought an article might be a better option.
Winks is weirdly controversial in that you can ask 10 fans about him and get 10 very different opinions. Football Twitter™will regularly tell you that he’s either under or overrated. I’ve tweeted about him a lot, usually singing his praises. But, you’ll also see that in my ideal XIs and when talking about who I’d like to sign he usually isn’t involved in my plans.
This is a good article from the beginning of this season from Chris Summersell asking the important question of whether Harry Winks is good and I’m trying not to repeat his article so if you want to see a scout report-ish article on him, have a look at that.
Spur’s midfield has been an issue since the decline and departure of the Wanyama-Dembele double pivot. Jose Mourinho likes to employ a 4–2–3–1 and has continued this at Spurs. He normally likes a strong passer and a strong defender to make up his midfield pair. A while ago, I talked about his midfield at Manchester United about and how to utilise Pogba. This article, to my frustration is my most read article despite being something I wrote in 5 minutes on a train.
I looked at the build of his Chelsea side of 2014/15 which was very successful with a Fabregas-Matic midfield. The Athletic article has a similar premise, but when Mourinho was brought in in November we were promised a new philosophy. So looking back at his previous teams maybe isn’t the answer to the puzzle in Spurs’ midfield.
Ndombele, Winks, Lo Celso are three strong midfielders, but there isn’t really a logical midfield pair for a double pivot. I’m not considering Sissoko because he isn’t good and we all wish Dier was good but he just isn’t his 2015/16 self.
Ndombele is great at progression with his passing and ball carrying. He’s a unique great player who I’m terrified won’t be utilised at Spurs by Mourinho. It’s hard to define his skillset or compare him to another player in world football. He’s shown his brilliance at times but in a side that has felt boring and unstable as well as having his own fitness issues, he hasn’t been able to make a meaningful impact on the team’s season.
Lo Celso is creative, elegant and energetic. He is a great dribbler and can progress the ball well. Winks is one of the best progressive passers in Europe but doesn’t tend to carry the ball that much. 3 profiles with good traits and big futures but it offers a lot of decisions over team selection when there still feels there is a missing profile. One of a defensive midfielder with physicality and high defensive output, strong passing and press resistance. Someone like Florentino Luis. I know that Chris Summersell is currently writing an article on who this should be so keep an eye out for that.
A 4–3–3 seems like a logical solution to fit in all three, or two with a new defensive midfielder brought in in summer. But, then you are asked what to do with Dele. Another headache of how to fit these young midfielders into a balanced team. Dele definitely feels underutilised in a deeper role, as we saw last season and needs to be playing as a second striker/10. Using Dele as a striker or winger is an alternative but there’s tough competition with Son and Kane being absolute starters when fit.
A possible answer is to transform Lo Celso into a 6, a regista type player who dictates play and progresses the ball from the defence into the final third. He’s 5'10" with good work rate and his technical skillset isn’t in question. Lo Celso has put out great tackle numbers in his limited minutes and despite not being the most physical he still has a bigger build than Winks and it is a good option in my opinion.
I also need to throw in my reminder that Juan Foyth was a defensive midfielder in Argentina, before we bought him with the aim of turning him into a modern centre half, and therefore is another option even if an unlikely one.
What would you do?
