Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has heaped praise on defender Micky van de Ven and predicted that he will have a successful national team career with the Netherlands.
The 23-year-old central defender has not managed to establish himself as a key player for the national team yet and Postecoglou believes that his late development is one of the reasons behind that. However, he feels that the Dutch international has developed quickly in recent years, and he has already established himself as a key player for his club in the Premier League.
There is no doubt that Micky van de Ven has established himself as one of the most exciting young defenders in European football. He will certainly get more opportunities with the Dutch national team and Postecoglou has backed him to succeed at the international level as well.
“With Micky, fair to say he developed late but very quickly,” he told football.london. “Because I think even at Volendam, there was a period when they were unsure about him.
“You could tell once physically he grew and the kind of player he was, his journey went very quickly at Volendam and the year he had in the Bundesliga he adjusted really well.
“For us last year he was outstanding in his first year in the Premier League. Obviously he had an injury which set him back a little bit but he’s growing all the time, maturing and I think he will become more of an influence at national team level.
“He’s now played a couple of games at left-back, left centre-back. The more he plays with the national team will give him even more belief but he’s going very well and I’m sure he’ll be an important member of our team but also the Dutch international team.”
Apart from his defensive qualities, his recovery pace has been absolutely invaluable for Tottenham who have deployed a high defensive line under their new manager.
It will be interesting to see if they can nurture the Dutch international into a world-class player in the near future.
Meanwhile, Van de Ven has had niggling injury problems as well because of his electric pace and it remains to be seen whether he can get over those problems in the coming seasons.
The Tottenham defender has all the tools to develop into a top-class player and it is hardly a surprise that his manager is backing him to be a star for club and country.
