Most of the players - and the essential ingredient of Peter Crouch (5)
I believe the answer is:
squat
'crouch' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'most of the players and the essential ingredient of peter' is the wordplay.
'most of' means to remove the last letter.
'the players' becomes 'squad' (eg a group of football players).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the essential ingredient of' means to look at the middle letters.
The middle letter of 'peter' is 't'.
'squad' with its last letter taken off is 'squa'.
'squa'+'t'='SQUAT'
(Other definitions for squat that I've seen before include "Crouch - occupy a dwelling illegally - short and stocky" , "Crouch; low" , "Illegal occupation of building" , "Hunker down" , "Dumpy - crouch" .)