Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has earned praise from Paul Merson, who also slated Manchester United for not signing the Spurs ace.
Merson’s comments on Sky Sports Soccer Special (01/11/23, 10:20pm) about the Tottenham star came as the Red Devils meekly bowed out of the Carabao Cup.
At present, Tottenham are flying high in the Premier League, sitting pretty at the summit. By contrast, Man United sit eighth in the standings.
The Red Devils were the Carabao Cup holders up until Wednesday night, when Newcastle United ran out 3-0 winners at Old Trafford.
‘I would be asking questions’
Merson criticised Man United and Erik ten Hag after the game. He slated their defence and also feels questions should be asked of the manager.
“I would be asking questions,” said Merson. “If I owned the club.
“I would be sitting there now and I would be going to you as the manager ‘Why didn’t we get the lad at Tottenham?
“He’s Dutch. You’re Dutch. You know the league. You know the players. Why is he at Tottenham and he isn’t here? And we haven’t got a centre-half’.
“No disrespect to Evans. But you are playing a 30-odd-year-old next to Maguire. Varane can’t get fit.
“Lindelof, I don’t think is a real centre-half, if I am being totally honest. I wouldn’t mind him marking me.
“Then you are looking at this player (Van de ven), who is one of the best centre-halves in the league, at the moment.
“And he isn’t playing for Man United. He wasn’t £80-90 million. Serious questions.”
Van de Ven definitely at the right club – TBR View
A team is not only the sum of its parts, but it requires a lot of other factors to get it playing at its best.
For instance, the dressing room atmosphere needs to be good, the man-management needs to be spot on, the tactics, and so on and so forth.
It’s no coincidence that Tottenham went from one of the worst seasons in their recent history to what could be one of the best with a few tweaks here and there following Ange Postecoglou’s arrival.
Sure, there was some fairly heavy investment, but it’s not as though Spurs just signed a few players and that solved everything. It runs deeper than that.
There’s no guarantee Van de Ven would’ve been as successful at Man United – with how things are there at present – as he is at Tottenham right now.