Micky van de Ven has claimed he still believes in Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur system, despite Thomas Frank being at the helm of the north London club since June
Micky van de Ven has run the risk of upsetting Thomas Frank by explaining he still believes in Ange Postecoglou's style of play at Tottenham Hotspur.
The 60-year-old was let go by the Lilywhites this summer after a 17th-pladce finish in the Premier League, despite bringing silverware to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the form of the Europa League. As a result, Frank was brought in from Brentford to rebuild over the summer with hopes of pushing on for domestic success.
Despite high hopes for Frank, it's been a tough campaign for the north London side thus far, who currently languish in 11th in the top flight standings with six wins, four draws and six losses to show for their efforts.
And one of Frank's most promising players in Van de Ven's recent comments may cause alarm bells to start ringing, given he has spoken highly of Postecoglou's system despite playing under Frank for the best part of six months.
On the latest episode of The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet, Gary Neville sat down with the centre-half, who said: "[Under Ange] We pressed forward for 90 minutes and of course, you ask a lot of your body playing every three days.
"When the results were getting down, Ange was really focused on his system and really believed in his system, and even until today I still believe in his system because we played some unbelievable football. The system works but at some points we just needed to adapt a bit more than we did at that point."
The Dutchman also made a stark comparison between Postecoglou's way of doing things compared to Frank's approach on the training ground. He added: "The new gaffer came in and has his new way of playing and thoughts about the game.
"When he came in pre-season, it was [him teaching us] everything about his system, because we’re going to need to play a totally different system compared to Ange. Now, it’s a lot of walk-throughs and technical stuff. Before every game, we do some tactical work about the opponent- the meetings and everything is the same as it was under Ange in terms of scouting the opponent.
He continued: "It’s different of course, the way Ange thinks about football and how Frank thinks about football. The meetings are the same but it’s a lot of walk-throughs we do with Thomas Frank.
"You play so many games, so we just go out and walk through everything. It’s Italian-style."
Elsewhere in his conversation, Van de Ven opened up on how Spurs are targeting a top-four finish this season to qualify for Europe once more next term. He explained: "Our aim for this season is to make sure that we’re playing Champions League football again.
"Top four or five is what we want. Every team in the Premier League is good. Every away game is tough, and even at home. If you’re feeling 90 per cent before a game, you’re likely to lose or drop points.
"Everyone can beat everyone, and the league is crazy. Look at a team like Aston Villa, at the start of the season, they were struggling, but now, they’re just behind Arsenal. This time of the season, around December and January, I think this is when we’re going to start seeing the gaps forming in the Premier League table."
There's certainly work to be done over a hectic Christmas period for Spurs should they hope to put themselves in a prime position to qualify for Europe's premiere footballing competition next season, given they are currently six points off fourth place, currently occupied by Enzo Maresca's Chelsea.