In the latest news surrounding Leicester City, the midfielder has emerged as a crucial player under Enzo Maresca, with recent data revealing his impressive start to the season.
If you were to ask Leicester City fans about the most essential player for their team’s early success, you’d receive various responses. Mads Hermansen, the goalkeeper, has shown great promise and his distribution skills play a vital role in the team’s style of play. Additionally, Ricardo Pereira has seamlessly adapted to the inverted full-back position, distinguishing himself as one of the few players in the squad capable of excelling in that role. However, one name that consistently appears on most people’s lists is Harry Winks.
Winks, who was signed during the summer, operates as the linchpin of the midfield in Maresca’s system. He acts as the vital link between defense and attack, and his contributions extend beyond what meets the eye.
His exceptional start to the season has been recognized in CIES’s recent weekly post, which examines the top 100 distributors in world football this season. Winks finds himself in 13th place on the list, which evaluates factors such as the number of successful passes per match, the success rate of passes, the pass-to-teammate ratio, and the average level of competition faced.
At the top of the list sits Rodri from Manchester City, followed by Frenkie De Jong from Barcelona and Toni Kroos from Real Madrid. Winks stands as the highest-ranked midfielder in the Championship and the highest-ranked Englishman on the list, trailing only Rodri in the English league.
The analysis becomes even more impressive when focusing on individual metrics. Winks boasts an average success rate of 95.1 percent in completed passes, ranking second globally behind Napoli’s Stanislav Lobotka with 95.4 percent. It was widely publicized that the Leicester City midfielder achieved a perfect pass accuracy of 100 percent in last month’s clash against Norwich City.
Furthermore, Winks finds himself in ninth place when considering the average number of successful passes per 90 minutes. He maintains an average of 84 successful passes per game, trailing just behind Joshua Kimmich of Bayern Munich.
During the summer, Winks explained that Maresca’s style of play played a significant role in his decision to join Leicester City from Tottenham.
“I was mainly drawn to his style of play, his philosophy, his ethos – everything centered around playing attractive football. That’s the kind of mold Leicester City fits in when it comes to how they play. Working under a manager like him is something I’ve always aspired to do,” said Winks about Maresca. “As a football player, I always want to have possession, to play football, learn, improve. At this stage of my career, I felt it was the perfect time to come here, enhance my skills, and reach the level Leicester City deserves to be at and the level I believe I can achieve as well.”
