Harry Winks is headed to the bench for Tottenham

Tottenham’s 5-0 win over Red Star on Tuesday was good for almost everyone at Spurs. Harry Winks may be the only player hurt by his club’s fine performance.

It’s very possible that Harry Winks is one of the 11 best players at Tottenham. That doesn’t mean he deserves to be in Mauricio Pochettino‘s starting XI on a regular basis. To make that happens, he needs to be one of the two players required to form Spurs’ best partnership in the defensive midfield.

At the moment, he doesn’t meet those qualifications. The excellent play of Tanguy Ndombele and Moussa Sissoko in Tottenham’s demolition of Red Star in the Champions League group stage makes it clear they deserve more starts in the near future. Every match they get in the double-pivot will send Winks to the substitutes’ bench.

Winks supporters don’t need to fret though. He’s still going to get a boatload of playing time. It’s not as if either Ndombele or Sissoko has proven they can stay healthy for a full Premier League campaign. Injuries are going to happen. Anytime one of that duo misses a match, Winks will be inserted into the starting XI in their place.

The point here is only that Winks is going to struggle to get starts when everyone is healthy. At the moment, he still plays like a midfielder who is stuck between positions. He has the tenacity to play in the double-pivot, but lacks the size and athleticism to really shield the back four against elite attackers.

The young Englishman has the ability to pick a clever pass moving forward, but he’s not nearly bold enough to play as a No. 10. His propensity to play it safe with sideways and/or backwards passing prevents him from having the cutting edge required to play further forward.

Winks’ best hope for a consistent spot in Pochettino’s starting XI moving forward is if his Argentine gaffer elects to go with a formation that features three midfielders. Spurs fans should expect to see that formation later in the year, but Tottenham are clearly playing their best football in a 4-2-3-1 setup at the moment. Unfortunately for Winks, that squeezes him out of the starting lineup.

There are plenty of twists and turns left in Tottenham’s current campaign, but for the moment, Winks is going to be starting his matches sitting behind the coaching staff. He has some serious work to do if he wants to dislodge either Sissoko or Ndombele from the double-pivot.