2025-12-20 10:33:44
Micky van de Ven has revealed that Tottenham players persuaded Ange Postecoglou to adopt more defensive tactics during the club’s victorious Europa League campaign last season.
The Dutch defender played a key role as Spurs ended their 17-year wait for silverware last season and revealed that he and team-mate Cristian Romero convinced the coach – who faced criticism for his attacking approach to matches – to play a more pragmatic style in the European tournament.
Van de Ven told the Overlap podcast: “In games when we were 1-0 up, we can’t keep playing our football, sometimes we need to just sit back, make sure no one comes through us.
“Me and Cuti (Romero) were playing only the Europa League games last season. At one point, we just walked up to the gaffer and said that we need to change some things and play more defensive sometimes, we need to make sure we win those games.”
He continued: “We played away at Frankfurt and were 1-0 up, and we can’t keep attacking, we just need to come back and have a low block and make sure we go to the next round.
“We sat with him and he agreed with us on some things and he said, ‘I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch – to make sure that this is something everybody knows’, and to speak with everybody on the pitch.”
Spurs beat Manchester United 1-0 in May’s final in Bilbao and revealed that Postecoglou – who was sacked by the club the following month – altered his tactical approach for the showpiece.
Van de Ven recalled: “We spoke with Ange before the final, everybody knew that we need to win a trophy, it doesn’t matter how we’re going to do it.
“Even then Ange said at the beginning that we need to play from the back and do what we always do, but when it came to half-time and we were 1-0 up, Ange just said: ‘Keep pressing but when it doesn’t work out just drop back and make sure we lock it, make sure they don’t come through.'”
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