Micky van de Ven has explained how Roberto De Zerbi has managed to drag Tottenham Hotspur out of a 'difficult situation'.
Micky van de Ven believes Ange Postecoglou laid the foundations for Roberto De Zerbi to rescue Tottenham Hotspur from Premier League relegation. The 25-year-old defender will hope to extend the Lilywhites' unbeaten streak when they host Leeds United on Monday night.
Spurs have won each of their last two games and could go four points clear of West Ham in the bottom three if they can defeat Daniel Farke's side. Although Tottenham may fancy their chances this evening, Leeds have been in even better form, having not lost in the English top-flight since the start of March.
Speaking to Stadium Astro ahead of the relegation showdown, Van de Ven explained how De Zerbi has managed to drag the Lilywhites out of a 'difficult situation'. The Netherlands international said: "Tactically, I would say he is way more different.
"He likes to play way more with the ball than we did with the former managers. He gives us so much confidence, gives us so much trust that we can play like this because we did it before already, especially under Ange."
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Van de Ven added: "We played this football as well. He just gives us so much confidence. We are so good on the ball that every game we can be on top of the other team."
Tottenham plunged into the relegation zone for the first time this season when De Zerbi lost his first game in charge. The Lilywhites showed great promise at the Stadium of Light, but Sunderland clambered to victory, courtesy of a solitary strike by Nordi Mukiele.
Van de Ven continued: "Obviously, he came in in a difficult moment as well because we hadn't won for four months, I think, or three months. So obviously, he came in a difficult situation as well.
"But the trust he gave us and so much confidence he gave us. I think you can see now on the pitch as well, the players start to play and start to feel like the confidence."
On what it felt like to fall into the relegation zone, Van de Ven said: "Yeah, obviously, you talk about it because you're in that moment, but the moment when we dropped into it, it's not that the boys came into the dressing room like, oh, we're in the bottom three.
"Obviously, everybody knew. Also, when we were 14th or 15th, we just knew like, okay, we need to do better. We need to improve because this is not where Spurs belong.
"So from that moment already, we knew we needed to improve so much more than we did right now. So it's not it was not a shock that we came into the bottom three because it was a reality.
"Obviously, everyone knew about it, and everybody was like, oh, we need to do way better than this because this is not where we belong."
In response to accusations that the Tottenham players have downed tools, Van de Ven said: "Completely doesn't make sense. Like I just it doesn't go in my head. Obviously, it's so easy to say things when things are going in the wrong direction.
"It's so easy to say like, oh, it doesn't matter for him, it doesn't matter for him, oh, he's leaving next year. It just completely doesn't make sense for me to say these type of things because. We just want the best for the club as well, because it's also on us.
"If we relegate, it's also on us. Even if you relegate, you go away, it's also on the player like [you have that mark on your record]. Exactly. And no one wants that mark.
"Trust me, every player who steps on the pitch just wants to win the game and always give 100 percent. There's no player in the team, and I'm quite sure on other teams, that are stepping on the pitch is like, oh, for me, [it] doesn't matter what's going to happen today."