Crouch claims Conte's tactics at Tottenham are the same as he experienced at Stoke City

Former Premier League striker Peter Crouch has compared Antonio Conte's tactics at Tottenham to those he experienced while playing for Stoke City.

Spurs suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season on Saturday as rivals Arsenal beat them 3-1 in the North London derby.

Tottenham had a number of chances in the counter-attack against the Gunners but former Liverpool and England striker Crouch thinks they defended too deep.

Conte's way of playing reminds him of the type of football he played at Stoke and Crouch has urged Tottenham to be more 'expansive' and 'progressive'.

Speaking on BT Sport, Crouch said: "I played that way at Stoke.

"Tottenham have enough players not to play that way, I think they can be a bit more expansive.

“But if you play that way, you have to go to people, you have to go to the ball, it has to be more progressive, it has to be more aggressive. » < /p>

Tottenham suffered a frustrating 0-0 stalemate against Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday night in the Champions League as Spurs' poor away form in Europe continued.

Harry Kane and Son Heung-min were guilty of missing a number of good chances as Tottenham pushed for a winner.

That could prove to be a good point for Conte's men, but Tottenham are now seven games without a win away in European competition.

And, despite the summer's improvements, Conte believes Spurs could struggle with a relatively small squad to compete for the Premier League and Champions League.

"I think we did a great achievement for the club by playing the Champions League. We finished the season with only 12 or 13 players," Conte said.

"I always say that maybe we were lucky to only be able to face two competitions. I think if I say now, we have to take action and be patient. If you compare the Champions League with the Europa League or the Conference League, it's completely different.

"You have to play with your strongest team and that makes it difficult to make further changes. I talked about the transfer market and we know we need more windows.

"Today I made a substitution and brought in [Bryan] Gil and he's a young player. You have to try to involve all the players. We have to get stronger as players. team.

"If we have the ambition and the intention to play for these two big competitions, the Premier League and the Champions League, and you have lost a lot of energy and players due to injuries, you have need a very, very big team."

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