Micky van de Ven exposes Ange Postecoglou in extraordinary Tottenham admission
Micky van de Ven has revealed something about Ange Postecoglou that proves why he was out of his depth at Tottenham.
Postecoglou was sacked by Spurs in the summer, despite the Australian leading his side to Europa League glory against Manchester United.
A trophy win couldn’t distract supporters from an incredibly disappointing 17th-place finish in the Premier League, and a lot of that was down to the 60-year-old’s management.
During his time with the Lilywhites, Postecoglou played crazy attacking football and often made bizarre decisions that almost cost them European success.
Micky van de Ven told Ange Postecoglou to go more defensive
Tottenham’s defensive duo of Van de Ven and Cristian Romero were impacted most by the fast, attacking football.
Postecoglou would often push his full-backs incredibly high, and that meant Van de Ven and Romero had to use their recovery pace in an attempt to prevent counterattacks.
Remarkably, Van de Ven even admitted that during Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-final second leg, the Dutchman had to tell his manager to go more defensive after taking the lead.
“At one point, we just walked up to the gaffer and said that we need to change some things and play more defensive sometimes,” he said on The Overlap.
“We played away at Frankfurt and were 1-0 up, and we can’t keep attacking, we just need to come back and have a low block and make sure we get the three points.
“We sat with him and he agreed with us on some things, and he told us that he expected us two guys to sort this on the pitch – to make sure that this is something everybody knows and to speak to everybody on the pitch.”
Postecoglou listened to Van de Ven
Following their triumphs against Frankfurt and Bodo/Glimt to reach the final, Postecoglou learned a lesson and arguably took the advice of Van de Ven on board.
| Tottenham | Stats | Manchester United |
| 27% | Ball possession | 73% |
| 1.01 | Expected goals | 0.97 |
| 3 | Shots | 16 |
| 1 | On target | 3 |
| 5 | Goalkeeper saves | 0 |
| 10 | Touches in opposition box | 39 |
The former Celtic manager did something Jose Mourinho-esque during Spurs’ 1-0 win over Man United in the Europa League final by parking the bus in the second half.
After Brennan Johnson gave them a 42nd-minute lead, Postecoglou sat 10 men behind the ball and defended for their lives, something he rarely did during his time as Tottenham manager.
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