Micky van de Ven has been in the spotlight following the Tottenham defender’s recent comments criticizing his team-mates following a disappointing result.
Immediately after the club’s loss to Aston Villa, Van de Ven, who was wearing the armband without his regular captain, lamented the defeat and suggested that his performance had fallen short of expected standards.
His comments point to growing frustration within Spurs camp as the team tries to find consistency and identity under new management.
Tottenham’s 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa was the flashpoint for Van de Ven’s reaction.
Despite taking an early lead with a goal from Rodrigo Bentancur, the hosts were unable to close out the game and were forced back with two long-range shots.
Van de Ven criticized his Tottenham team-mates
As reported by Tottenham’s official website, Van de Ven said:
“It was a tough game, really tough. Aston Villa are a good team. We knew from the start that it was going to be a close game, but I don’t think they created any big chances. They scored two goals outside the box. We’ll have to look back to see if we can say we could have done something, but I don’t think we needed to lose today.”
“We scored early, so we want to build on that. We created chances, but the longer the game goes on, the more we need control. You can’t keep going forward the whole game. In the end, they scored from nowhere. The first goal, it was a great attack. We can’t really do anything about it. The second goal, I don’t know exactly where he shot it, but I think it was quite far out.
“We had some great chances, but we didn’t play our best passes. So I think sometimes in the final third you have to stay calm and play your best passes to take the biggest chances. I don’t think we did that today.”
Spurs need more stability
The Dutch centre-back, who has already cemented his reputation as one of the Premier League’s most complete defenders, has shown his standards and perhaps expressed his impatience with a group that appears to be underperforming.
Despite a strong start to the season under new manager Thomas Frank, results such as defeat against Aston Villa and another recent defeat against Bournemouth have cast doubt on their ambition and quality.
When such players speak publicly about substandard standards, it resonates.
‘Attitude problem’ – Tottenham star player left out of squad due to attitude problem