Mourinho says he committed a ‘crime’ by picking 26-year-old to play for Tottenham

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has admitted to Football London that he committed a ‘crime’ by playing Eric Dier against Chelsea.

Dier was picked to start at centre-back for Tottenham and featured for 90 minutes, as Spurs squeezed through on penalties in the League Cup.

Dier has endured a monumental work-load since the start of the season, as he has featured in almost every match Tottenham have played.

And Mourinho admits that he really shouldn’t have picked Dier two days ago, as he was taking a big risk.

“In this moment we can face a team that has different systems and it doesn’t matter how they come, the players know what to do, they know the differences and what they have to adapt,” Mourinho said.

“So the team is getting in conditions to play. Yesterday was not really strategic, it was more trying to build a team with the players that we had, let’s say available for the game, trying not to commit crimes and I only committed one and that was to play Dier.

“Trying not to commit more crimes was more about trying to get a balanced team, a team that could control the game and opponent and open to late changes like we did. We managed to do that and in the end it was great for the boys.”

Tottenham have faced a gruelling fixture list of late, as they have been competing in three different competitions.

Their run of games shows no signs of relenting either, as Spurs take on Maccabi Haifa in the Europa League tonight, before facing Manchester United at the weekend.

Mourinho has already gone on record to say that Dier won’t start for Tottenham later this evening, but the England international will surely be back in his side when they take on United on Sunday.