Ange Postecoglou says it was not Micky van de Ven’s absence that cost Tottenham the Fulham game
Rodrigo Muniz turned out to be a nightmare at Craven Cottage as Tottenham Hotspur lost 3-0 to Fulham amid Micky van de Ven’s absence. Spurs were coming into the game with high confidence following a 4-0 win against top-four competitors Aston Villa but it didn’t take long for the beaming faces to turn green.
Fulham looked on top of the game for the majority of the minutes as Rodrigo Muniz’s brace complemented by Sasa Lukic’s first goal for the hosts ensured Tottenham were down and beaten in what possibly was Ange Postecoglou’s worst game at the club.
The loss comes along with a missing face; Radu Dragusin made his first start for the club since moving to North London in a £26.7m (€31m) deal from Italian side Genoa following a late attempt from Bayern Munich to hijack a move to Allianz Arena. He replaced injured Micky van de Ven in defence as the Dutchman continues the hamstring problems that he has carried along the season.
Micky van de Ven has now missed twelve games for Tottenham owing to hamstring problems in the ongoing campaign.
While Radu looked not as impressive, questions were to be raised whether the loss came owing to the absence of the 22-year-old Holland international at the heart of the defence.
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou spoke to BBC Match of the Day following the final whistle where he was asked about whether Tottenham missed Micky van de Ven as the Australian said:
“That’s not the reason we didn’t perform today. Micky van de Ven is not the reason we didn’t perform today.”
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Micky is a massive loss to Tottenham vis-a-vis to what he brings to the team. There is going to be a marginal loss of quality if he is not pulling his socks on for Spurs but this was a game where the whole eleven didn’t show up. It may be one of the things that impacted the performance, but surely you cannot point your fingers there.
