Andy Townsend raves about ‘rapid’ Micky van de Ven in Tottenham win v Fulham
Andy Townsend was stunned by Micky van de Ven’s pace while he watched the defender shine in Tottenham’s 2-0 win against Fulham on Monday night.
Van de Ven, 22, helped Spurs keep their fourth clean sheet of the season as they returned to the top of the Premier League by taking all three points against Marco Silva’s side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
While the Netherlands international has been praised a lot for his defensive abilities, not much has been said about the centre-back’s ability to keep up with some of the quickest attackers in the world.
Sky Sports co-commentator Townsend was particularly impressed by the speed van de Ven showed when he outpaced Fulham’s Carlos Vinicius in the first half.
“He’s so quick, he is so rapid, Micky van de Ven,” said Townsend on Sky Sports Main Event on Monday night (23 October, 08:04pm). “You don’t want to be in a foot race with him, you really don’t.
“You can see he travels across the ground so easily and so effectively. It allows [Cristian] Romero to go tight, be aggressive and try and pinch balls in front of forwards.
“He knows he can do that with someone alongside him who is really rapid.”
Speaking about van de Ven, Alan Hutton told Tottenham News:
“Van de Ven and Romero have a great partnership,” said Hutton. “I think Romero has been outstanding this season as well.
“Obviously as a new signing coming in, getting a goal is excellent but not just that – I think he can defend.
“He’s of a good size, he’s physical, he can come out he can play with the ball and I think that’s what Ange expects of all his players to be able to pass.
“I think they’ve been searching for that other kind of centre-half for a long time.
“They tried different formations – going back to a back-four suits them.
“He’s been outstanding.
“There were questions asked of Ange when he took the job, was he going be good enough and he’s been able to shut all of them up.”
In other Tottenham news, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg reminded fans of his quality with a key contribution against Fulham.