Cascarino: Crouch Must Start

"Harry Redknapp surprised me at the weekend when he left Peter Crouch out of the Tottenham line-up at Stamford Bridge. I think Peter has done very well and was surprised he wasn't preferred to Robbie Keane.
PETER CROUCH
"For me, the Spurs forward line should consist of Peter Crouch and one other, be it Jermain Defoe or Keane. At the moment Defoe is the man in form without a shadow of a doubt so he should be in the team rather than Robbie, who has yet to rediscover his best form since returning to the club, so the best front two Harry could select is Crouch and Defoe without a shadow of a doubt.
"Tottenham are very close to being a really top team but the centre-half position is a major problem. If Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate were fit then this would be a really good side but unfortunately that's very rarely the case. You could see how much weaker Tottenham were when King went off against Chelsea, as Drogba literally bullied Vedran Corluka like a ragdoll at times. If they had everyone fit then in my opinion Tottenham are easily as good as any team outside the big four.
"I am also surprised Harry has yet to start Niko Kranjcar in the team. I assumed he was brought in to fill the gap left by the injury to Luka Modric but that's not been the case so far. The team has been shifted about with Keane on the left against United and Lennon in the hole against Chelsea when Kranjcar could have come in as a like-for-like replacement. He won't be able to play in tonight's game after previously playing for Portsmouth in the competition so he will have to wait for his first start in Tottenham colours.
"The match with Preston offers Harry the chance to have a better look at his fringe players such as David Bentley and Giovani Dos Santos. He'll want to keep them involved but it's up to them to convince Harry they deserve the chance to break into the Tottenham first team. The manager likes to rotate his squad in terms of buying and selling on a regular basis so this is a big chance for some of these players to prove they have a future with the club.
"The last two results have shown just how reliant Spurs are on Wilson Palacios. He hasn't been at his best and that shows that if Tottenham are to compete with the very best, the Honduran needs to be playing at his maximum powers. This is particularly the case if he is partnered with big Tom Huddlestone in the centre of the park.
"Now Tom is one of the best around when he is on the ball but unfortunately for him 50% of a midfielder's game is centred on when the team don't have the ball and that's where he struggles sometimes. Physically he has to be at his peak every week if he is to be a major player in the Premier League and if he slips below that, the game often passes him by.
"Tottenham will be facing a decent Preston side in the Carling Cup. This will be a test without their main centre-halves but at least Michael Dawson has returned to the squad. He is not at the same level as King or Woodgate but he is still a good centre-half in his own right.