Micky van de Ven was overjoyed with the way his Premier League debut transpired, admitting that the only negative was the fact that Tottenham did not manage to pick up all three points.
It was perhaps a bit of a surprise to see Van de Ven start on Sunday against Brentford, with Ange Postecoglou himself admitting after the game that he took a gamble by throwing the Dutchman into the deep end as he had only had three training sessions with the squad (talkSPORT).
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However, the centre-back passed the test with flying colours and he has insisted that he was quite calm when he found out he would be playing at the Getch Community Stadium.
Van de Ven told Football.London: “For me, I spoke with the trainer and he came up to me to tell me I was starting. Of course, it’s a thing because I trained three days with the team but they gave me some confidence and the trainer was talking to me and also gave me some confidence.
“I didn’t stress at all that I can’t do it. All the trainers were positive, all the players were positive saying ‘do your job, do what you can do and we will help you’ and I think it went well.”
Van de Ven had to play alongside two defensive partners on Sunday in Cristian Romero and Davinson Sanchez, with the Argentine being taken off early after sustaining a possible concussion.
When asked if was tricky to adapt to a different centre-back partner mid-game, the 22-year-old responded: “Not tricky. To play alongside a different centre-back after 12 minutes not really [tricky]. They are two really good centre-backs.
“They helped me with the game and both talked to me. Romero in the first 12 minutes and he scored a goal, Davinson then almost the whole game. They helped me so it was not difficult to play with different centre-backs.”
Van de Ven enjoyed the fast-pace Premier League
The former Wolfsburg star described his first Premier League outing as ‘incredible’, admitting that the intensity of the game was much higher than what he is used to.
When asked about his first taste of English football, Van de Ven responded: “Incredible. Premier League debut, really excited. We didn’t get the win, that’s the only negative thing about today, but we go forward now to next week.
“Everything is harder, it’s going quicker and it’s going up and down, up and down. There is no moment in the game where you feel you can rest a bit, you always have to be sharp and 100 per cent focused.
“Yeah of course at the beginning everything is new. It is my first game with the team, so of course at the beginning, we have to watch a bit how everything is going and afterwards you feel more comfortable. The guys are talking positively to you so that is also helping.”
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I was pleasantly surprised with the maturity that Van de Ven showed on Sunday as Brentford away is one of the sternest tests a centre-back can expect in his first Premier League outing.
However, the 22-year-old never looked flustered on the ball or when he was defending counter-attacking situations.
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