Paul Merson says Jose Mourinho should’ve played £50k-a-week Spurs man against Chelsea

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho should have played Harry Winks against Chelsea, according to Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson.

Spurs are in dire straits at present, having lost their last three Premier League games and looking completely uninspiring in the process.

Chelsea dominated for most of Thursday night’s game, and took the lead on 24 minutes through Jorginho’s penalty, won after Eric Dier fouled Timo Werner.

Tottenham were especially poor in the first half, and even though they improved a little after the interval, they couldn’t find a way back into the game.

Winks was an unused substitute during the game and Merson thinks it was a bad call by Mourinho, whose midfield struggled to keep hold of the ball.

“If you are going to play the way they played against Chelsea, you have to play Harry Winks because he keeps hold of the ball,” Merson wrote on Sky Sports.

“If you aren’t going to have a lot of the ball, you’ve got to play when you’ve got the ball, otherwise you end up giving it straight back and we start all over again.

It was a walk in the park for Chelsea for a big London derby. It was Chelsea’s big game and it was a walk in the park.

“It’s also Spurs’ second-biggest game after Arsenal, and it was so disappointing from them.”

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Merson didn’t pull any punches in his verdict on Spurs’ display against Chelsea, describing them as “embarrassing at the highest level” and “the worst team in the Premier League to watch, at the moment”.

Would Winks have really made much of a difference? The £50,000-a-week man might have kept hold of the ball more, but would he have had the physicality and attacking intent to make it count?