Former Spurs striker Peter Crouch has criticised the way Jose Mourinho set Spurs up in their 2-1 defeat to Chelsea this afternoon and has lavished praise on Frank Lampard.
Spurs went into the game desperately lacking in attacking options with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min both ruled out with long-term injuries.
Jose Mourinho decided to play Steven Bergwijn up front supported by Lucas Moura with a midfield trio of Harry Winks, Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele, and five at the back to match Chelsea.
However, the away side were content to sit back and let their opponents dominate proceedings. Crouch claimed the Lilywhites offered little after Mourinho’s game plan went out of the window when Spurs went 1-0 down in the 15th minute.
The former England striker, who was analysing the game for BT Sport (as relayed by the Express), said: “Listen, losing Son and Kane is a huge, huge blow but it is a squad game and you need to be able to cope with that.
“I know he’s trying to be defensive, he’s trying to set up to frustrate and when Giroud got that goal it became even more difficult.
“I just didn’t think they had enough ideas going forward and that showed. Chelsea fully deserved the win.”
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Crouch felt that Lampard got his calls spot on and that the Blues were well deserving of the three points.
He added: “[Lampard] set the team up perfectly today, right from the first whistle I think Mason Mount set the tone with a tackle,” Crouch continued.
“I thought he was excellent today, with Giroud the ball sticks and when the ball is sticking like that players can get round him.
“I thought Alonso was first class as well today. So impressive all-round from Chelsea.”
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While I can certainly understand why Jose started with the team he did, I expected him to be a little more proactive with his substitutions given the fact that we were trailing at half time. Even when we went 2-0 down, the 57-year-old didn’t really show any urgency in bringing Erik Lamela or Dele Alli on.
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