Ange Postecoglou hails 'special footballer' Micky van de Ven after Tottenham masterclass
Ange Postecoglou described Micky van de Ven as a "special footballer" after the centre-half starred in Tottenham's 4-0 thrashing of Everton in north London.
Van de Ven carried the ball more than 70 yards, from the edge of his own box, to set up Heung-min Son's second and Spurs's fourth goal on Saturday.
His centre-half partner Cristian Romero marked his 100th Spurs appearance with the third goal, with Yves Bissouma opening the scoring on an encouraging afternoon for Postecoglou's side.
The Australian believes Van de Ven, Romero, Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie are a "compelling" defensive unit for Spurs and is conscious of the need to manage their work-load.
"Outstanding. He's a pretty special footballer," Postecoglou said of the Dutchman.
"Last year when we had that back four up and running, we were a pretty compelling team, but we also know we can't just keep putting them out there.
"With Romero, Micky and Destiny, they're not at peak fitness at the moment and they all sort of missed pre-season.
"So we knew sort of this two or three weeks -- we saw it last week about the 60-minute mark -- they really started to fatigue and we've just got to be really careful with them.
"But if we can get through the international break, then once the midweek games start, we can start rotating a little bit and, you know, because we need them at the peak of their performance because when they're like that, they're outstanding footballers."
"The performance was excellent," Postecoglou added. "I thought the performance last week [in the 1-1 draw with Leicester] was excellent too, but you've got to also turn that sort of dominant performance into outcomes and results.
"We did today, we looked really threatening going forward all the time. We created many chances, different kinds of chances, and I thought we handled their threat which they still are from set pieces and long balls really well today. So there was a little discipline in both aspects of the game."
Postecoglou is excited by new signing Wilson Odobert, 19, who started on the left of the front five just over a week after joining from Burnley in a £25million deal.
"He's different from our other wingers," Postecoglou said. "He goes at his opponent and, you know, even if he wasn't successful, he went at him again and I think that's exactly why we bought him to the club. I mean, he's 19-years-old, his first game for his new club at home in front of 60,000. Really exciting."
Bissouma marked his return to the side by breaking the deadlock with a fine, first-time strike from the edge of the box.
The Malian missed the 1-1 draw with Leicester on Monday after being suspended by the club for one game for filming himself inhaling laughing gas, and Postecoglou challenged him to improve on and off the pitch.
"Yeah, it was [a great finish]," Postecoglou said. "No, I'm not surprised because there's no doubt in his ability.
"He has that ability to do something special. But, you know, he needs to make sure that he does everything, as I said, he tries and endeavours to do everything right on and off the field to give him the platform to show who he could be as a footballer.
"We certainly believe in him, we’re certainly giving him an opportunity. But as I said before the game, that's just not a never-ending thread, at some point you need to cut it. And it's really up to him to keep going on."
