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Every word Micky van de Ven said on Kudus melee, FA fine, Solanke impact and restaurant discount

Micky van de Ven opened up on a number of different subjects during his time with the media
-Credit: (Image: Jaimi Joy/Getty Images)


Micky van de Ven was in front of the media at Hotspur Way on Wednesday afternoon to preview Tottenham's Europa League tie against AZ Alkmaar. Hailing from the Netherlands, the centre-back grew up not too far away from Alkmaar and did in fact play for the Dutch club as a youngster.

Van de Ven had the opportunity to discuss his time with AZ and his subsequent move to Volendam, with the Dutch media at Hotspur Way keen to get more of an insight into the early years of his career. As well as reflecting on the past, Van de Ven also spoke about the incident involving West Ham's Mohammed Kudus at the weekend.

The Tottenham defender was shown a yellow card for his part in the scuffle and Kudus was eventually dismissed from the field of play following a VAR check. Spurs have been fined £20,000 for the fracas and that was put to the Netherlands international in his pre-match press conference.

You can read every word of what the defender had to say to the media below:

What was your take on the West Ham melee?

What I can remember is that I had a duel with Mohammed Kudus and I fell down on the ground and I had the feeling that he kicked too much through on the ball. He tried to kick the ball but he hit me twice, three times. I was obviously a bit mad in this situation and I stood up and I pushed him and then the situation happened from his side. He literally punched me in the face and I went down.

To be honest, I don’t know what happened afterwards - I didn’t really see what happened afterwards - but that is the situation. The FA said we need to get fined for this. It is not how I think about it. If I think about, it would be a different situation.

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Where do you get your speed from?

Yeah. When I was young, I was also really fast. And when I got older and taller, I started to struggle with my running so that was the moment that I really trained on it. You need to run properly - I was so tall and everything looks like it is in slow motion. So that was the point that I was really training on it and the speed came back. Since I was young I was always really fast so it is not something I have trained on.

How enjoyable is it to play with that high line?

I really enjoy it because I have the speed also to recover a lot of big spaces. I also really enjoy the offensive football we play. With a high pressing team, I think if you want to play a high press, you need a high line because otherwise the distance between the attackers and the defence is going to be too big. So I really enough playing this high line and this offensive football.

Is there a feeling in the dressing room that you're getting closer to winning a trophy?

Yeah of course we want to win a trophy. That is something we all want and we are working towards every day. We are still in tournaments this year so we are going to do about it to win a trophy.

How have you settled in at the club so fast?

When I came here, to be honest, the guys were really important for me. So straight from the beginning when I was here, I also started I had three training sessions and then I started already. So the guys were really important and gave me the trust. The gaffer also gave me the trust that I had the qualities to play in this team at Spurs and to play at this high level.

I think from the beginning this helped me a lot. And I think ever since then, everything has gone well and they keep trusting me. Also, when you are a player and have trust, you play more free and that also helps me a lot.

Your favourite restaurant in Alkmaar, is your discount in danger?

Yeah the owner of this restaurant is a good mate of my dad's - my dad lives in Alkmaar. I don't think I will get a discount if I play well tomorrow because then probably we will beat them.

What is the biggest area of Spurs improvement from last season?

This season we have more control of the games. Last season you saw in a lot of games that we lost control a little bit. Also when we lost the ball we were quite open and got a lot of counter attacks. We know better positions for the players and I think players help each other more than maybe we did last season.

What is it like training against Dominic Solanke and how much of a difference has he made to the team?

Dom has been unbelievable since he joined, he is working so hard. Even as a striker you see offensive, defensive - he keeps running the whole game and I am watching him and thinking 'phwoar, how are you even doing this, keeping sprinting over and over again'. Also he is getting his goals and his assists and hopefully he can keep going like this.

Your assists against Everton and Man United were they instinctive or is that something Ange has told you to do?

I feel free to run and do what I want because the gaffer always tells us that what pops up in your mind you can do. Of course you can't shoot from the halfway line all the time but when you have the trust and the situation says you can do it, you can do it.

Against Everton I saw the gap and the pitch was open and against Man United I just saw the gap and thought 'if I start sprinting now it is going to be difficult for the defenders to stop me'.

Is it fair for the club to be fined for the West Ham incident?

It's difficult to say, my reaction was not good and also I was a bit mad so from my side it was not really good but I think it was from both ways.

Does Angeball feel like playing Dutch football?

Yeah Dutch teams like to play out form the back and we do exactly the same. Even when I was in Germany they always said it was the 'Dutch School' but most of the time they said that the Dutch like playing football but they don't like to run. When you see the defensive part you see people shirking a bit and not really running. I really enjoy playing here for Ange.

Dutch question: Yes, I think so. Our manager has a very good understanding of the Dutch game. He looks at the game in a very tactical way, in a similar fashion.

I don’t really have a strong connotation with AZ. It’s just a coincidence that my dad lives there but I don’t necessarily have a strong connection with Alkmaar.

Dutch question: I did play as a teenager for AZ. How come I didn’t stay there? I think I must have started around 12 years old when I was at AZ. At the time I was being turned down and I moved to Volendam. Even in my younger years, I think Volendam had some doubts as well. Now, of course, when I was playing at Volendam, AZ did come and see me when I broke through, it was nice to have AZ and other teams come and have a look. I don’t think it was all that AZ didn’t really see me – because I don’t think I had the qualities that at that time that I believe I have now. I was a bit of a latecomer. I came on steam a bit late.

Maybe me playing against AZ tomorrow night is more special for the people around me. Not so much for me. Of course, I have friends who support AZ. For me, it’s like playing against each other team. Of course, I do know some of the guys who play for AZ, I know from the national team.

The team want to win trophies. The manager said he always wins trophies in his second season. He thinks you guys can. How much belief does that give you? Especially after a defeat.

I think even if the gaffer didn’t say this, we still had the same belief as a group. We know our quality. We know we have some unbelievable players in the team and an unbelievable group of players. Yeah, we all trust in the process and the system that the gaffer wants to play. We all trust in each other and we know we can achieve some beautiful things. Yeah, hopefully we can win a prize. That’s a big thing for us, yeah.

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