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News
Peter Crouch reacts to Joe Hart’s latest Tottenham performance
Peter Crouch offered a mixed response on Thursday night to the performance of Tottenham goalkeeper Joe Hart in the Europa League group stages.
The 33-year-old played during Spurs’ dramatic 3-3 draw away to Austrian side LASK, a result which secured qualification to the knockout rounds.
With Jose Mourinho naming mainly fringe players ahead of the weekend’s North London derby in the Premier League, several failed to impress against a LASK team that certainly deserved at least a point from the contest.
Gareth Bale, Heung-Min Son and Dele Alli were all on the scoresheet for the visitors, but Spurs had plenty of problems defensively and leaked three goals for the second time this season across all competitions.
Crouch looked at Hart’s display in his post-match analysis and was pleased with a number of reflex saves in the first-half, but disappointed with other areas of his game.
He picked out one mistake in particular for LASK’s second goal, as he dropped down to his right and failed to keep out a shot that was at a good height for him.
“He started the game really well, made a couple of good saves and kept them in it,”
“A goalkeeper of Joe Hart’s quality he’ll be more than disappointed there [for the second goal]. He’s got his arm outstretched it’s as if it’s hit him on the forearm there. Yeah bitterly disappointing.”
TBR’s View:
Hart should feel he could’ve done better with two of the three goals he conceded in the Europa League fixture, proving that he’s not the player he once was and is still perhaps lacking with confidence in some areas.
The former England international is a brilliant senior figure around the dressing room that looks like he’s having a good impact on his teammates, but it was arguably his worst performance to date in a Spurs shirt since he joined in the summer and it will no surprise to see him dropped next week for the European tie with Royal Antwerp that they need to win to secure top spot in the group.