Player Watch Player Watch: Micky van de Ven

[alamo]

Well at least his chant is already sorted.

No? Ok, maybe not

 

[JonnySpurs]

The 'Cruyffian' talent joining Tottenham's defence

Micky van de Ven has been called a "winner, fighter and Cruyffian talent", and is Tottenham's latest defensive addition.

www.bbc.co.uk

60 metres in 7 seconds flat. Yeesh!

 

[13VanDerBale13]

We really need to make our minds up this weekend, can’t be going on tour with Dier & Sanchez starting.

 

[KILLA_SIN]

 

[Timberwolf]

As reported, strongly suggests we're going with a data-led approach this summer. The two of them have such similar profiles on paper.

Vicario and Raya also came out very similarly when profiled too, I believe.

 

[KILLA_SIN]

As reported, strongly suggests we're going with a data-led approach this summer. The two of them have such similar profiles on paper.

Vicario and Raya also came out very similarly when profiled too, I believe.

Also doesnt look like in going for VdV were signing an inferior player. For me with his pace hes the one we should be going for

 

[SpursSince1980]

Greedy me still wants both.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Greedy me still wants both.

it is not greedy. it is a must to rebuild our defense properly this summer, we need similar calibre of players if not Tapsoba and vdv

 

[Yiddo1982]

it is not greedy. it is a must to rebuild our defense properly this summer, we need similar calibre of players if not Tapsoba and vdv

Yup.

A back four of….

Emerson/Porro Romero Tapsoba Van der Ven

….would be fab, with VDV coming inside when required/Romero injured/Romero suspended/Romero leaves. Like in a Ben White role.

 

[tevezito]

So many people saying Van Der Ven can just slip in at left back to get game time if we were to get both him and Tapsoba. But not many asking themselves if he's actually keen to play there himself. Doubt it's much of a selling point for him? Surely he's best off playing in his best position and getting all the experience he can? Lots of people seem to forget these players are people first and foremost.

 

[thekneaf]

So many people saying Van Der Ven can just slip in at left back to get game time if we were to get both him and Tapsoba. But not many asking themselves if he's actually keen to play there himself. Doubt it's much of a selling point for him? Surely he's best off playing in his best position and getting all the experience he can? Lots of people seem to forget these players are people first and foremost.

Hi, would you like to be our John Stones? So that's a yes? Excellent

 

[Japhet]

Also doesnt look like in going for VdV were signing an inferior player. For me with his pace hes the one we should be going for

More than anything, we need somebody who can lead and organize the back line and stay calm under pressure. VdV's pace would be great as well, although I think agility and speed off the mark is more important that top speed and good positioning is vital too. We mostly saw Kyle Walker's speed when he was caught way out of position.

 

[TheHodFather]

I just have a gut feeling this is one of those guys we'll regret not signing if we don't pull the trigger. That combination of size and speed, whilst still being comfortable on the ball, is a bit special.

 

[Tyler24durden]

We need pace in a high line defence and VDV is perfect for it.

Tapsoba is no slouch either.

we need both as Tapsoba has afcon in January and Romero misses games to suspensions, injuries and playing for Argentina.

allows us to switch to a back 3 if needed tactically too.

It also allows both VDV and Tapsoba to adjust to the epl without having to play every game and allows romero to be rested at times to prevent injuries.

I think Tapsoba and VDV could actually become the first choice pair within a year too.

 

[KILLA_SIN]

More than anything, we need somebody who can lead and organize the back line and stay calm under pressure. VdV's pace would be great as well, although I think agility and speed off the mark is more important that top speed and good positioning is vital too. We mostly saw Kyle Walker's speed when he was caught way out of position.

he looks like he has a good eye for tracking a runner. The over top and and in behind threat with the high line he would be really good to defend against. and hes not a lumbering big man, hes pretty tidy

 

[mr ashley]

So many people saying Van Der Ven can just slip in at left back to get game time if we were to get both him and Tapsoba. But not many asking themselves if he's actually keen to play there himself. Doubt it's much of a selling point for him? Surely he's best off playing in his best position and getting all the experience he can? Lots of people seem to forget these players are people first and foremost.

Remember something similar about vertonghen

 

[tevezito]

Hi, would you like to be our John Stones? So that's a yes? Excellent

More tempting than being our Ben White, to be fair

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Athletic article

Pretty even-handed. Apologies if already posted.

Spoiler

Micky van de Ven: Uncompromising defender would bring speed and strength to Tottenham​

Sebastian Stafford-Bloor

This summer, we are running a series profiling 50 exciting players under the age of 25 — who they are, how they play, and why they could be attracting interest in the coming transfer windows.

You can find all our profiles so far here.

Until now, we have run the rule over the France forward who went from zero to €100million in the space of a year, Brazilian football’s “Little Tiger” and the Ligue 1 midfielder who made his first start against Paris Saint-Germain.

---

Almost everyone has now seen the clip that made Micky van de Ven famous.

It comes from the end of January this year, when his Wolfsburg team were searching for a goal deep in stoppage time as a way back into a DFB-Pokal tie they were losing 2-1 away to Union Berlin.

Wolfsburg loaded the penalty box, goalkeeper and all, for one last corner, only to see the ball cleared and punted back into their half, towards the unguarded net.

The game was over, time was up. Jerome Roussillon, one of the quicker wing-backs in Germany, raced away and towards the loose ball, and would have scored a third goal in front of his own supporters were it not for Van de Ven, who ran from one six-yard box to the other, making up enough ground to block his goal-bound shot just before the line.

It was a miraculous clearance — because of the blur-like acceleration but also Van de Ven’s willingness to chase two different sorts of lost cause. Whether Roussillon had scored or not, Union were going through, and the referee allowed the action to continue only because it would have seemed churlish to blow the whistle.

By some distance, it was the finest goal-line clearance in German football last season. Most likely, it will be the best for many years to come.

But it’s an anecdote rather than a real description. That sequence shows only fragments of Van de Ven’s game — his speed and his spirit — and yet that viral moment has helped to build a reputation that his talent deserves, and could take him to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in the region of £30million ($38.2m).

---

Van de Ven’s Netherlands side were eliminated from this summer’s European Under-21 Championship in Romania and Georgia at the group stage.

The Wolfsburg defender was certainly among their better performers, however, and the tournament was still a stage for his personality.

Their final game against Georgia, a 1-1 draw that was terminal to Dutch hopes, was contested in a bear pit of an atmosphere in Tbilisi. The first two games, however, were both sparsely attended and had a lockdown atmosphere that allowed conversations on the pitch to echo around. Van de Ven was his side’s captain for many of those minutes and he was loud and fierce, and walked with a strut.

And why not? His rise in the game has been extremely quick.

Within the space of 18 months, he’s graduated from the second tier of Dutch football with FC Volendam to become, at just 22, one of the most talked-about young centre-backs in the Bundesliga.

Part of his reputation comes from his physical stature. He’s 6ft 3in (191cm), broad-shouldered and, in 2022-23, the Bundesliga ranked him as the quickest centre-back in the German top flight.

Running speed statistics shouldn’t always be taken literally but in this case, they do describe the athlete; outrunning him would be like to trying to evade that big rock rumbling after Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He’s been largely excellent for Wolfsburg and it’s not unreasonable for him to be deemed an option for RB Leipzig, should they sell the mighty Josko Gvardiol this summer.

These are not impressions formed only from youth tournaments and theory. Van de Ven authored a strong body of work at Wolfsburg last season. Niko Kovac’s team have generally operated from a back four, with Van de Ven partnering Maxence Lacroix in the middle, but he’s also been pushed out to the left of a back three and, on occasion, used as the left-back in a four.

Specifically, the Lacroix partnership has worked well. Whereas Van de Ven habitually carries the ball forward into midfield and sometimes beyond, 23-year-old Frenchman Lacroix is a more static player and a more traditional centre-back. There’s good chemistry between the two; they are balanced and complementary.

While the Bundesliga’s defensive standards are not high currently and Wolfsburg suffered a late-season 6-0 hammering at Borussia Dortmund which sullied their goals-against tally, that pairing — and their defence as a whole — has been resolute.

It’s worth noting also that Dortmund defeat, a humbling afternoon for Van de Ven, saw him pushed to the left of a back three with two unfamiliar central defensive partners to his right and a wing-back in Jakub Kaminskion his outside who is both young and, really, more of a wide midfielder.

Van de Ven did not play well. It was arguably his worst game of the season. But he was left badly exposed against Dortmund’s lightning-quick wide-forwards, and he was really more symptom than cause.

Focusing instead on last season as a whole, Van de Ven’s profile is compelling.

His size and speed have been noted and, naturally, they make him a formidable opponent either in a race, or in a shoulder-to-shoulder situation. He doesn’t lose many of those duels.

With the ball, he’s also an asset. Aesthetically, he can look a bit like a lorry without brakes, rolling downhill and gathering speed. He’s definitely not one of those artist-like centre-backs; he plays in heavy boots rather than velvet slippers, but he is more technical than he looks and capable of finding a way to escape opponents and protecting the ball under pressure.

His distribution is not adventurous. He’s safe and reliable in possession and can knife the odd pass into midfield, but he doesn’t clip the ball 60 yards and land it on the toe of a team-mate. Actually, his long-range distribution can be quite agricultural and while he is bold at taking players on, he knows his limitations as a playmaker.

What’s also interesting, is that despite a generally active, aggressive profile, his defensive engagement is not high at all. In any way, in fact: on the ground or in the air, despite his height.

In the Smarterscout chart above, which comes courtesy of The Athletic’s Mark Carey, the defensive numbers point to a player who doesn’t force himself upon attacking moves and who doesn’t jump “up and out” in pursuit of the ball. In style, he’s actually quite laissez-faire. For instance, watching Van de Ven defend against counter-attacks, his tendency is really to delay the move rather than to try to stop it dead. He’s a considered defender; patient, even.

As far as Tottenham’s overtures are concerned, considering Cristian Romero is highly compulsive, always drawn to the ball, and always determined to make a challenge one way or another, that kind of partnership would have balance. There would be overlap in the sense that both players like to range upfield, but they fundamentally contrast in the way that they prefer to defend.

---

There are still reasons to be cautious.

Van de Ven is a powerful and forceful tackler. In close-range situations, his size is often a strength in the sense that he blocks out the sun; he takes away passing avenues and the path to goal very well. However, he also has a scything technique that produces a “ball and all” impact that, if interpreted in a certain way, might draw refereeing attention, fouls and cards of various hues.

Perhaps more concerning is what looks like a vulnerability against a certain type of player.

The screen grab below is taken from Wolfsburg’s visit to Borussia Monchengladbach in April. It shows Nathan Ngoumou in possession and Van de Ven facing him in a good position, but with loose marking from his team-mates nearer the penalty spot.

Ngoumou was signed by Gladbach last summer and aside from a few minutes at the end of October’s reverse fixture, this was the first time the two had faced each other in the Bundesliga. As the position of his left foot suggests, Van de Ven is anticipating that Ngoumou will head for the byline, keep the ball on his stronger right side, and aim to stand up a cross to the back post.

But when Ngoumou chops inside, Van de Ven’s weight distribution leaves him unable to recover ground quickly enough, and the winger has the time to bend the opening goal inside the far post. Wolfsburg lost the game, 2-0.

There was mitigation.

Data from Ngoumou’s performances show he was far more likely to cross in this situation than to cut back and shoot. He averaged just 0.46 shots per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga last season and Van de Ven, who was presumably made aware of such numbers, was likely just playing those percentages.

To further emphasise that point, this was actually Ngoumou’s only goal in 21 appearances for Gladbach last season, so this might just have been a case of a defender being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and paying a heavy price.

However, Van de Ven was also tilted off-balance in a very similar way by Youssoufa Moukoko in that six-goal hiding at the Westfalenstadion, giving up a scoring chance that his goalkeeper Koen Casteels did well to parry. Other moments from his season — particularly against Hertha Berlin at home and, coincidently, from that cup tie with Union — also suggest that his footwork isn’t always as efficient as it might be, and that he can be slow to respond when the ball is moved quickly in front of him.

That hardly constitutes a red flag or a terminal flaw, but it’s a weakness dynamic and technical opponents can target.

And obviously, the higher in the game Van de Ven goes, the more of those players he’ll encounter.

---

From the perspective of how Van de Ven’s career might develop, it’s worth considering where he’s come from and what the catalysts behind his rapid rise have been.

He was born in Wormer, a small town not far north of Amsterdam, and his formative footballing years were spent in Volendam, which, by population, is smaller than Chippenham in Wiltshire or Paris, Texas. Wolfsburg is several times bigger, obviously, but its atmosphere still isn’t comparable to a major city.

As a place, it’s centred — literally and figuratively — around the Volkswagen plant, and while it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, almost all of those come to see the Autostadt, which offers a museum and factory tours, with many unaware that there’s a football stadium just a few hundred yards away.

The point being: it’s not a bright spotlight if you’re playing your football there.

The Volkswagen Arena looks bigger than it is and Wolfsburg rarely even come close to selling out its 30,000 capacity. Financially, they are a big club that attracts talented players and has been periodically competitive in the Bundesliga, but they don’t compare to teams such as Schalke, Hamburg and Stuttgart, despite being much more successful than them in recent years.

Depending on a player’s personality, it’s an ideal place to learn and develop. There are expectations, yes, but bad results and performances in Wolfsburg don’t necessarily attract as much scrutiny and opprobrium as they do elsewhere.

All of which might be irrelevant; talented, emotionally resilient players come from capital cities and hamlets alike, but if Van de Ven were to move to a major club, either within Germany or beyond, and be exposed to the viciousness of the news cycle and the fans’ tantrums on social media, it would be a new challenge and something that he hasn’t experienced before.

It’s in his future, though. That’s inevitable. How he copes with that change when it comes and how well his next club can refine his abilities will determine whether he keeps rising on the same trajectory

 

[Mattspurs1982]

Athletic article

Pretty even-handed. Apologies if already posted.

Spoiler

Micky van de Ven: Uncompromising defender would bring speed and strength to Tottenham​

Sebastian Stafford-Bloor

This summer, we are running a series profiling 50 exciting players under the age of 25 — who they are, how they play, and why they could be attracting interest in the coming transfer windows.

You can find all our profiles so far here.

Until now, we have run the rule over the France forward who went from zero to €100million in the space of a year, Brazilian football’s “Little Tiger” and the Ligue 1 midfielder who made his first start against Paris Saint-Germain.

---

Almost everyone has now seen the clip that made Micky van de Ven famous.

It comes from the end of January this year, when his Wolfsburg team were searching for a goal deep in stoppage time as a way back into a DFB-Pokal tie they were losing 2-1 away to Union Berlin.

Wolfsburg loaded the penalty box, goalkeeper and all, for one last corner, only to see the ball cleared and punted back into their half, towards the unguarded net.

The game was over, time was up. Jerome Roussillon, one of the quicker wing-backs in Germany, raced away and towards the loose ball, and would have scored a third goal in front of his own supporters were it not for Van de Ven, who ran from one six-yard box to the other, making up enough ground to block his goal-bound shot just before the line.

It was a miraculous clearance — because of the blur-like acceleration but also Van de Ven’s willingness to chase two different sorts of lost cause. Whether Roussillon had scored or not, Union were going through, and the referee allowed the action to continue only because it would have seemed churlish to blow the whistle.

By some distance, it was the finest goal-line clearance in German football last season. Most likely, it will be the best for many years to come.

But it’s an anecdote rather than a real description. That sequence shows only fragments of Van de Ven’s game — his speed and his spirit — and yet that viral moment has helped to build a reputation that his talent deserves, and could take him to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in the region of £30million ($38.2m).

---

Van de Ven’s Netherlands side were eliminated from this summer’s European Under-21 Championship in Romania and Georgia at the group stage.

The Wolfsburg defender was certainly among their better performers, however, and the tournament was still a stage for his personality.

Their final game against Georgia, a 1-1 draw that was terminal to Dutch hopes, was contested in a bear pit of an atmosphere in Tbilisi. The first two games, however, were both sparsely attended and had a lockdown atmosphere that allowed conversations on the pitch to echo around. Van de Ven was his side’s captain for many of those minutes and he was loud and fierce, and walked with a strut.

And why not? His rise in the game has been extremely quick.

Within the space of 18 months, he’s graduated from the second tier of Dutch football with FC Volendam to become, at just 22, one of the most talked-about young centre-backs in the Bundesliga.

Part of his reputation comes from his physical stature. He’s 6ft 3in (191cm), broad-shouldered and, in 2022-23, the Bundesliga ranked him as the quickest centre-back in the German top flight.

Running speed statistics shouldn’t always be taken literally but in this case, they do describe the athlete; outrunning him would be like to trying to evade that big rock rumbling after Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He’s been largely excellent for Wolfsburg and it’s not unreasonable for him to be deemed an option for RB Leipzig, should they sell the mighty Josko Gvardiol this summer.

These are not impressions formed only from youth tournaments and theory. Van de Ven authored a strong body of work at Wolfsburg last season. Niko Kovac’s team have generally operated from a back four, with Van de Ven partnering Maxence Lacroix in the middle, but he’s also been pushed out to the left of a back three and, on occasion, used as the left-back in a four.

Specifically, the Lacroix partnership has worked well. Whereas Van de Ven habitually carries the ball forward into midfield and sometimes beyond, 23-year-old Frenchman Lacroix is a more static player and a more traditional centre-back. There’s good chemistry between the two; they are balanced and complementary.

While the Bundesliga’s defensive standards are not high currently and Wolfsburg suffered a late-season 6-0 hammering at Borussia Dortmund which sullied their goals-against tally, that pairing — and their defence as a whole — has been resolute.



It’s worth noting also that Dortmund defeat, a humbling afternoon for Van de Ven, saw him pushed to the left of a back three with two unfamiliar central defensive partners to his right and a wing-back in Jakub Kaminskion his outside who is both young and, really, more of a wide midfielder.

Van de Ven did not play well. It was arguably his worst game of the season. But he was left badly exposed against Dortmund’s lightning-quick wide-forwards, and he was really more symptom than cause.

Focusing instead on last season as a whole, Van de Ven’s profile is compelling.

His size and speed have been noted and, naturally, they make him a formidable opponent either in a race, or in a shoulder-to-shoulder situation. He doesn’t lose many of those duels.

With the ball, he’s also an asset. Aesthetically, he can look a bit like a lorry without brakes, rolling downhill and gathering speed. He’s definitely not one of those artist-like centre-backs; he plays in heavy boots rather than velvet slippers, but he is more technical than he looks and capable of finding a way to escape opponents and protecting the ball under pressure.

His distribution is not adventurous. He’s safe and reliable in possession and can knife the odd pass into midfield, but he doesn’t clip the ball 60 yards and land it on the toe of a team-mate. Actually, his long-range distribution can be quite agricultural and while he is bold at taking players on, he knows his limitations as a playmaker.

What’s also interesting, is that despite a generally active, aggressive profile, his defensive engagement is not high at all. In any way, in fact: on the ground or in the air, despite his height.

In the Smarterscout chart above, which comes courtesy of The Athletic’s Mark Carey, the defensive numbers point to a player who doesn’t force himself upon attacking moves and who doesn’t jump “up and out” in pursuit of the ball. In style, he’s actually quite laissez-faire. For instance, watching Van de Ven defend against counter-attacks, his tendency is really to delay the move rather than to try to stop it dead. He’s a considered defender; patient, even.

As far as Tottenham’s overtures are concerned, considering Cristian Romero is highly compulsive, always drawn to the ball, and always determined to make a challenge one way or another, that kind of partnership would have balance. There would be overlap in the sense that both players like to range upfield, but they fundamentally contrast in the way that they prefer to defend.

---

There are still reasons to be cautious.

Van de Ven is a powerful and forceful tackler. In close-range situations, his size is often a strength in the sense that he blocks out the sun; he takes away passing avenues and the path to goal very well. However, he also has a scything technique that produces a “ball and all” impact that, if interpreted in a certain way, might draw refereeing attention, fouls and cards of various hues.

Perhaps more concerning is what looks like a vulnerability against a certain type of player.

The screen grab below is taken from Wolfsburg’s visit to Borussia Monchengladbach in April. It shows Nathan Ngoumou in possession and Van de Ven facing him in a good position, but with loose marking from his team-mates nearer the penalty spot.

Ngoumou was signed by Gladbach last summer and aside from a few minutes at the end of October’s reverse fixture, this was the first time the two had faced each other in the Bundesliga. As the position of his left foot suggests, Van de Ven is anticipating that Ngoumou will head for the byline, keep the ball on his stronger right side, and aim to stand up a cross to the back post.

But when Ngoumou chops inside, Van de Ven’s weight distribution leaves him unable to recover ground quickly enough, and the winger has the time to bend the opening goal inside the far post. Wolfsburg lost the game, 2-0.

There was mitigation.

Data from Ngoumou’s performances show he was far more likely to cross in this situation than to cut back and shoot. He averaged just 0.46 shots per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga last season and Van de Ven, who was presumably made aware of such numbers, was likely just playing those percentages.

To further emphasise that point, this was actually Ngoumou’s only goal in 21 appearances for Gladbach last season, so this might just have been a case of a defender being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and paying a heavy price.

However, Van de Ven was also tilted off-balance in a very similar way by Youssoufa Moukoko in that six-goal hiding at the Westfalenstadion, giving up a scoring chance that his goalkeeper Koen Casteels did well to parry. Other moments from his season — particularly against Hertha Berlin at home and, coincidently, from that cup tie with Union — also suggest that his footwork isn’t always as efficient as it might be, and that he can be slow to respond when the ball is moved quickly in front of him.

That hardly constitutes a red flag or a terminal flaw, but it’s a weakness dynamic and technical opponents can target.

And obviously, the higher in the game Van de Ven goes, the more of those players he’ll encounter.

---

From the perspective of how Van de Ven’s career might develop, it’s worth considering where he’s come from and what the catalysts behind his rapid rise have been.

He was born in Wormer, a small town not far north of Amsterdam, and his formative footballing years were spent in Volendam, which, by population, is smaller than Chippenham in Wiltshire or Paris, Texas. Wolfsburg is several times bigger, obviously, but its atmosphere still isn’t comparable to a major city.



As a place, it’s centred — literally and figuratively — around the Volkswagen plant, and while it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, almost all of those come to see the Autostadt, which offers a museum and factory tours, with many unaware that there’s a football stadium just a few hundred yards away.

The point being: it’s not a bright spotlight if you’re playing your football there.

The Volkswagen Arena looks bigger than it is and Wolfsburg rarely even come close to selling out its 30,000 capacity. Financially, they are a big club that attracts talented players and has been periodically competitive in the Bundesliga, but they don’t compare to teams such as Schalke, Hamburg and Stuttgart, despite being much more successful than them in recent years.

Depending on a player’s personality, it’s an ideal place to learn and develop. There are expectations, yes, but bad results and performances in Wolfsburg don’t necessarily attract as much scrutiny and opprobrium as they do elsewhere.

All of which might be irrelevant; talented, emotionally resilient players come from capital cities and hamlets alike, but if Van de Ven were to move to a major club, either within Germany or beyond, and be exposed to the viciousness of the news cycle and the fans’ tantrums on social media, it would be a new challenge and something that he hasn’t experienced before.

It’s in his future, though. That’s inevitable. How he copes with that change when it comes and how well his next club can refine his abilities will determine whether he keeps rising on the same trajectory

thanks for posting this mate. A really good insight into this strengths and development areas. You’d hope at 22, he can work on those areas, notably positioning against certain types of tricky players, and as he adapts to the EPL, dealing with a faster paced game

 

[Roberts84]

Well at least his chant is already sorted.

No? Ok, maybe not

So is his goal celebration