I see where you're coming from and I don't think Winks deserves the hate he receives, however I do think recently he has really limited himself in his output both defensively and offensively. I think he needs to get back to the drawing board and focus on what makes him useful as a player.
The reason that Carrick, Modric, Iniesta and players in that mould are so good is because their footballing intelligence allows them to play simple passes which are incredibly effective in moving their team forward. Winks plays safe/backwards far too much for a 'metronome' style player which adds nothing other than to start again. In addition to this, he also suffers a bit from a lack of space-finding ability where the aforementioned players were always excellent. It's one thing to move the game forward via passes, but also with your off-ball movement and making options for receiving the ball.
Given his age and application I think there's certainly a player in there worth persisting with, but in the current Spurs climate where our midfield is so weak and we're at a bit of a crisis point it's very difficult for somebody lacking identity like Winks to make any impression.
