Micky van de Ven explains why Mile Jedinak is so important at Tottenham and Postecoglou lessons

[mawspurs]

Micky van de Ven has explained why Mile Jedinak is so important in Tottenham training sessions and what he has learned from Ange Postecoglou.

Source: Football London

 

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[mawspurs]

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Micky van de Ven has explained why Mile Jedinak is so important in Tottenham training sessions and what he has learned from Ange Postecoglou.

The 22-year-old Dutch defender has enjoyed an impressive first season at Spurs in the Premier League, becoming the fastest player in its history around a couple of hamstring injuries, including one that saw him leave the pitch in the second half of the big win at Aston Villa on Sunday. Postecoglou told football.london after that game that Van de Ven did not believe it was a significant injury like the first one against Chelsea in November which ruled him out for a couple of months.

Ahead of last weekend's game at Villa Park, the Netherlands international spoke about a wide range of topics with former Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer for Optus Sport, including going into detail about Postecoglou's methods and what he has learned from his head coach.

"I really like the way he thinks about football. It's really clear. He just wants us to play, every time over and over again. He gives us the trust as a team that we can do it. Sometimes you have some trainers who tell you that you have to play, but when you make the mistake they're going to scream at you or they're like 'what are you doing?'," said the young defender.


"But even now, when we keep playing from the back, and when you make a mistake he wants us to try again and again and again. Every time over and over and he gives us the trust that we can do it so he doesn't put on us the pressure that we can't make mistakes. He's always like you can just keep doing it and when you make a mistake it doesn't matter, just try it again and again. I think this is really important as a player that you feel the trust that you can do it and don't have the feeling like you can't make a mistake."

On what he's learned from the Australian, he added: "I think in football relevance, from the build-up, there are so many options [with the ball] and when I came from Germany, of course I haven't played professional football for that long, but there are so many options in the build-up. Sometimes he comes with an option and I was like 'yeah it's true, I didn't know this'. Of course it's possible, but I never thought about it like this. So I would say that in football, the way of playing, I learned the most from him."

Much has been made of Tottenham's high line, which often has Van de Ven sweeping up behind it with his pace, but the Dutchman believes that the system's critics are not really seeing exactly what is going on.

"We know what to do so for us it's normal. Of course people are shaking a bit because of the high line, because we play with so much space at our back but I think with Destiny, Pedro, myself and Cuti we have the pace to recover it. It's playing with risk but also you see most of times the players run offside. We know it's offside because we know our strong line," he explained.

"Because of the linesman, they don't put their flag up in the air, everybody is shaking and thinking 'oh they don't have the control', but we know it's offside, so we know we have control of their attackers. That's why people think that maybe it's too high because they keep going through but in the end it's offside. We train twice a week with only the defenders on this [shape] and about some other things of course."

One person involved in those training sessions is coach Mile Jedinak, who works on Spurs' set pieces and organisation alongside fellow defensive coach Matt Wells. Van de Ven was asked about the Australian and said that the 39-year-old former Aston Villa midfielder having only retired from playing four years ago means he still brings his quality to the training pitch.

"Mile most of the time is also with the defenders with Wellsy, the other assistant trainer. Mile is a top guy, of course he had a great career. He was also the captain for Australia but in our team he's also really important with the set pieces, with also every day on the pitch he's keeping us sharp and he keeps us ready every day. Off the pitch he's a really nice guy, he's a top guy," said the centre-back.

"It's really good to work with him because even when we're training he can bring us to the highest level, even if we have to defend and he has to cross balls in, even then we have to be at the highest level because Mile still can play. So he always reaches in training the high level, so we need to be top every time. On and off the pitch he helps us a lot."

Van de Ven has formed a strong partnership with Cristian Romero in Tottenham's back line and there's a clear mutual admiration between the two defenders.

"For me Romero is world class. He won the World Cup but how you see him on the pitch, he's a leader. He wants to take the team and he's always 100%. Sometimes of course people see also he's a bit too aggressive, but he's a top class player on the ball and without the ball with his defending," said Van de Ven.

"I can promise you that this guy is not scared of anyone and he keeps going every game. From the start he was here helping me. He was there from day one, helping me. He spoke with me and he helped me with the system they play because I wasn't here for pre-season. He helped me at the beginning and he's just a world class player."