Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Winks had been hailed by a former coach.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Winks scored his first England goal on Sunday night, and he has now been hailed by one of his former Spurs coaches.
Winks was given a chance to shine in Gareth Southgate’s midfield against Kosovo, and quickly repaid his manager’s faith with the opening goal of the game.
Winks broke forward from midfield to latch onto Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s pass and slot past Arijanet Muric, setting England on their way to a 4-0 win.
Now, Winks heads back to the club game, as he will be featuring for Tottenham against West Ham United on Saturday, and has a new manager to impress.
Mauricio Pochettino was sacked last night and replaced with Jose Mourinho, meaning the man who gave Winks his Tottenham debut has gone – and he needs to impress another manager all over again.
With the form he’s in right now, that shouldn’t be a big issue, and one former Spurs coach can’t speak highly enough of the midfielder.
Former Spurs academy coach Russell Small has told the Daily Mail that he has always been a player who can pass the ball well and go past players, even remembering him being a goalscorer as a kid too.
Small added that whilst Pochettino compared Winks to Iniesta, he thinks Winks is more comparable to Zinedine Zidane, which is a bold claim – but he couldn’t speak highly enough of Winks and his ability to be consistent even from a young age.
“Mauricio Pochettino has called him ‘Little Iniesta’. If there was anyone I would compare him to it would be Zinedine Zidane,” said Small. “The way he could see a pass, short or long, he could go past a player and he scored goals.”
“He was average height but very slight. He was physical enough and agile enough to use his skills and keep out the way of stronger players. I can’t remember him having a bad game, he was that consistent at that age. There was nothing you asked him to do that he couldn’t do,” he added.
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