Micky Van de Ven is one of the best defenders in the Premier League right now, and yet, he still can’t work his way into the Netherlands side.
Indeed, the defender has the unenviable task of competing with some of the very best defenders in the world for his national team.
The likes of Matthijs De Ligt, Nathan Ake and Sven Botman are all duking it out for a place in Ronald Koeman’s team, but, of course, the man at the heart of everything is Virgil van Dijk.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel, Van de Ven has been discussing some of his fellow countrymen, and he named Van Dijk among the players who have really impressed him with his consistency and performances in the Premier League.
Van de Ven impressed by Van Dijk
The Tottenham defender spoke about the ‘outstanding’ Liverpool player.
“To be honest, it’s difficult now to play for the national team because there are so many good centre-backs. We are the best now in the Netherlands, the level of the centre-backs, everyone is playing well, it’s really difficult,” Van de Ven said.
“I can learn from them, from Van Dijk, De Ligt, Ake, you see how they play every week in the Premier League, it’s really impressive.”
MORE LIVERPOOL STORIES
Impossible task
We really don’t envy Van de Ven at the moment.
It must be so annoying to be so talented but have such a big barrier in the way stopping you from playing international football.
No matter what he does, he’s going to find it very hard to get ahead of Van Dijk and co in this Netherlands team, and, to be fair, there’s a good reason for that.
Van Dijk has established himself as one of the best defenders in the world over a number of years now, and he’s more than earned the right to be the first name on the teamsheet at international level.