JUST IN – Mickey Van de Ven reveals how Cristian Romero immediately helped him leading to his ‘exceptional’ performance at White Hart Lane [Full story link in comment]
Micky van de Ven has revealed that Cristian Romero immediately had a key role to play in his adaptation to life at Tottenham. Linked with a move to north London in the summer after excelling in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg, it wasn’t until five days before Spurs started their 2023/24 Premier League campaign away at Brentford when he finally completed his big-money transfer to the Lilywhites.
Subsequently missing all of pre-season and those vital training sessions as Ange Postecoglou looked to implement his football philosophy on his Tottenham squad, the head coach didn’t have any qualms at all about throwing the Dutchman in for his Premier League debut at the Gtech Community Stadium despite the player barely knowing his new teammates. Coping well on his Tottenham bow, Van de Ven has only gone from strength to strength since then to already become one of the best defenders in England’s top flight.
Forming such a good defensive partnership with Romero since they were first paired alongside each other, Van de Ven has opened up on just how good a player the World Cup winner is and how he has helped him at the club.
Forming such a good defensive partnership with Romero since they were first paired alongside each other, Van de Ven has opened up on just how good a player the World Cup winner is and how he has helped him at the club.
“For me Romero is world class, as you say he won the World Championship,” said Van de Ven in an interview with Optus Sport. “But how you see him on the pitch he really is a leader, he wants to take the team and is always 100 per cent.
“Sometimes of course people say he is a bit too aggressive but he’s a top-class player on the ball and without the ball defending. I can promise you this guy is not scared of anyone and he keeps going every game.
“From the start he helped me. The first game we started [vs Brentford] he went off with a head injury but afterwards he was there straight from day one. He helped me here, spoke with me and helped me with the system they played because I wasn’t here for pre-season so he helped me at the beginning. He’s just a world-class player.”
Tottenham’s back four of Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven and Destiny Udogie have really built up a good understanding and played a major role in Tottenham’s Champions League quest. Perhaps giving supporters a scare or two in games due to the high line they operate with in Postecoglou’s system, Van de Ven knows it’s playing with risk but he and his Tottenham teammates practice their defensive work in training a couple of times a week.
“For us, it’s normal. Maybe when we played against Chelsea it was a bit too extreme,” he said. “Of course, people are shaking a bit because of the high line, we play with so many spaces in our back but I think with Destiny, Pedro, me, Cristian, we also have the pace to recover.
“It’s playing with risk but most of the time the players run offside and we know it’s offside because of our strong line and though the linesman doesn’t put his flag up and everyone is shaking and thinking we don’t have control, but we know it’s offside and have control of the attackers.
“People think it’s too high because people are going through but at the end it’s offside. We train two times a week about this with only the defenders.”
Another player who has made quite the impression on Van de Ven this season is Tottenham captain Son Heung-min. The Dutchman opened up on the South Korean’s captaincy style and revealed that football is always on Son’s mind.
“Really high. Top-class player. As a captain, as a person, on the pitch and off the pitch,” said the youngster when asked how highly he rates Son. “On the pitch he is always the one who wants to lead the team, wants to lead the group and off the pitch he’s always then thinking about football.
“Of course you have some personal conversations with him but he’s always thinking about football. On the pitch you see how class he is, his touches, his finishing and on the pitch also he’s keeping us sharp and he always goes in front of them.”
