Ange Postecoglou thinks Tottenham Hotspur have a special player in Micky van de Ven, admitting that it will be a huge boost for his side if the Dutchman can avoid any injuries this season.
Tottenham’s poor form last season coincided with Van de Ven’s injury, which is not a coincidence as the centre-back’s recovery pace is crucial to the way the Lilywhites play.
We saw evidence of that again on Saturday against Everton, with the 23-year-old mopping up long balls brilliantly while also showcasing his ability to make marauding runs up the pitch.
Van de Ven set up Tottenham’s fourth goal by carrying the ball from defence to the edge of the box before playing Son Heung-min through on goal, with the South Korean squeezing the ball under Jordan Pickford to get his second of the game.
Postecoglou confessed that the former Wolfsburg man and some of his other defenders are not at peak fitness yet and admitted that he will be rotating his backline this season to keep key players fit throughout the campaign.
When asked about Van de Ven, the Tottenham boss said after the 4-0 win over Everton (via The Standard): “Outstanding. He’s a pretty special footballer. Last year when we had that back four up and running, we were a pretty compelling team, but we also know we can’t just keep putting them out there.
“With Romero, Micky and Destiny, they’re not at peak fitness at the moment and they all sort of missed pre-season. So we knew sort of this two or three weeks — we saw it last week about the 60-minute mark — they really started to fatigue and we’ve just got to be really careful with them.
“But if we can get through the international break, then once the midweek games start, we can start rotating a little bit and, you know, because we need them at the peak of their performance because when they’re like that, they’re outstanding footballers.”
Spurs Web Opinion
If Tottenham’s first-choice back four of Porro, Romero, Van de Ven and Udogie can stay fit, we could be a major force this season.
We also have much more solid backups this season in the form of Radu Dragusin, Djed Spence, and Archie Gray, and thus should be able to cope better with injuries to key defenders.
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