Tottenham: Martin Keown blasts ’embarrassing’ Micky van de Ven as footage v Newcastle emerges
Micky van de Ven must learn from his disappointing display against Newcastle United as Tottenham fell to a crushing defeat.
The Netherlands international couldn’t live with the threats posed in behind by Alexander Isak as the forward scored twice in the Magpies’ 4-0 victory on Saturday (13 April).
The 22-year-old has come in for plenty of praise since making the move to Spurs last summer, but it was quite comfortably his worst performance in the Premier League at St James’ Park.
Speaking on Match of the Day on Saturday (27:10), Martin Keown was critical of the centre-back’s display, labelling his defending of Isak’s second goal as “embarrassing”.
The pundit highlighted areas where Van de Ven went wrong against the rapid Swedish international throughout the game, with the forward capitalising on Tottenham’s high line at almost every opportunity.
In the above image, Keown pointed out how the Spurs defender was clearly on the wrong side of Isak in the early stages of the game.
“They are so obsessed with this offside line that they are not going with their opponent and these were little warnings,” he said.
Although that situation didn’t lead to a chance for Newcastle, it was perhaps a moment for Van de Ven – or Ange Postecoglou – to recognise that he needed to drop deeper.
They didn’t learn from it, though, as the Swede opened the scoring on 30 minutes when the Magpies broke quickly, leaving the forward in a one-on-one situation with the centre-back.
He confidently took the ball past the Dutchman, who fell to the floor in the process, before calmly slotting his effort past the helpless Guglielmo Vicario to put his side ahead.
“These are good players, there’s a World Cup winner in there and Van de Ven has been talked about in glowing terms,” said Keown. “Look at the space he’s allowing him here, they’re going to score from this situation.
“You’ve got to be goal side, you’ve got to be aware, you’ve got to be on red alert and they’re not. Romero there doesn’t react quick enough.
“It’s just been fed through and this is when the young man comes across, he’s just got to slow down and he ends up on his backside, and Isak then embarrasses him.”
It was a theme that continued throughout the afternoon. You would have thought Postecoglou would have looked to get to grips with the situation at half-time.
But just six minutes into the second half, with Spurs 2-0 down following Anthony Gordon’s goal, Van de Ven once again found himself on the wrong side of Isak.
In the opening stages of the move, the forward creates space for himself before making a run in behind to latch onto a ball over the top.
“This one here, look,” said Keown. “Again, that’s the channel he wants to run into, so you need to mark on that side.
“Isak, just a little movement and then it’s in behind. When they’re as quick as you, you have to react quickly and you have to go for it, put the burners on.”
The lively attacker made no mistake as he went through on goal, once again showing great composure as he gave Vicario no chance.
While Van de Ven is known for possessing as much – if not more – pace than any central defender in the Premier League, Isak is probably one of the quickest players in world football when he gets going.
It was another situation where Keown wasn’t impressed by the defender’s contribution in what was a torrid afternoon for him.
“It was embarrassing there, almost as if he’s took all of his confidence away,” said the pundit. “The young man, he’s only 22, I do think he’s an outstanding talent, but today he was second best.”
It’s certainly a game that the Dutch defender will be looking to learn from after impressing many with his performances this season.
Having previously caught the eye with his recovery speed, which has made him typically hard to beat, he was dribbled past twice throughout the game [SofaScore].
He won just three of his seven duels for a 43 per cent success rate, while also picking up a yellow card to add to his woes.
Although he continued to look good on the ball, recording a 94 per cent pass success rate, it counts for very little when you don’t do your defensive duties well enough.
There are huge question marks about how Spurs move forward with the high defensive line after Newcastle took advantage of it on numerous occasions.
While it may be a good tactic to employ at home to get them up the pitch, perhaps Postecoglou needs to think about using a different strategy on the road.
It was no doubt a difficult game for Van de Ven, but he has shown more than enough over the past few months to suggest it was only a minor blip and he will recover from this performance.
In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy will be breathing a sigh of relief after a PSR development has emerged.
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