Micky van de Ven shocked the footballing world when the Tottenham defender ran through most of Copenhagen’s team to score an incredible goal in the Champions League, and he almost did it again during a match for his national team.
Micky van de Ven is the current top scorer at Tottenham Hotspur this season, so it is no longer a surprise to see him landing on the scoresheet.
However, most of his goals have been headers from set pieces. This meant no one could quite believe what they had just seen when he found the net against Copenhagen in the Champions League.
The dynamite defender received the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and ran the length of the pitch, before beating the opposition goalkeeper with a cool finish. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and he came close to doing something similar, this time for the Netherlands.
Micky van de Ven made a stunning run for his country
The Netherlands were held to a 1-1 draw by Poland on Friday night, which was quite a disappointing result in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
However, there was one standout moment when van de Ven won the ball at the edge of his penalty box and ran the length of the left wing before getting chopped down by Piotr Zieliński.
The Tottenham defender was playing as a left-back and had almost reached Poland’s penalty area when he was fouled, preventing what could have been another special moment.
Tottenham should consider playing van de Ven in a more attacking role
Van de Ven is a very good central defender, but he has so many attributes that he could easily play in a more forward-focused position.
If Spurs are ever short on left-back options, the 24-year-old would be an excellent choice to provide cover. Jan Vertonghen occasionally did the same in his days at Tottenham, and he had one particularly memorable display against Borussia Dortmund, which showed his all-round quality.
Clearly, van de Ven is also a man of many talents, and it would be very exciting to see what he would do if he was given more positional freedom.
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