Micky van de Ven has now opened up on Luka Vuskovic’s pre-season impact and Tottenham’s renewed focus on set pieces.
Tottenham Hotspur are set to continue their preparations for the new season, with the Lilywhites now in Asia to take on a few of their Premier League rivals.
Arsenal and Newcastle United are two of the clashes scheduled for Tottenham, with the games set to take place on 31 July and 3 August, respectively.
Thomas Frank’s squad for the tour has been named, with a good mix of experienced first-team regulars and young talents making the trip, including Luka Vuskovic.
Micky van de Ven praises new centre-back Luka Vuskovic
Micky van de Ven joined Frank for press conference duty and has now opened up on new boy Luka Vuskovic, who has been impressing in Tottenham’s pre-season.
Van de Ven, when asked about the 18-year-old, was quick to state that Vuskovic is settling in well and that he hopes fans can see more of him.
He said (Football London): “Luka is only 18 years old, but what you can see from how he behaves on the pitch and off the pitch, you can see he is a really talented football player.
“He has a lot of qualities and I think he has shown in the last two friendlies that he has a lot of big and strong points where even our centre-backs can learn from.
“He’s done unbelievable at this point and hopefully he can do way more for us and hopefully you can see way more from him.”
The young centre-back, so far in pre-season, has grabbed a goal and an assist in Tottenham’s only pre-season win and is now among five youngsters to have made the trip with the rest of the squad to Asia, where he will be hoping to impress Frank.
Tottenham working to fix set-piece issues from last season
Of course, given how poorly Tottenham performed in the League, the Dane is sure to be looking to improve every aspect of play.
Set pieces were a big issue last season for Tottenham, who conceded an outstanding 13 Premier League set-piece goals – 11 more than Frank’s Brentford last term.
Van de Ven has now opened up on set-piece coaching, revealing that Tottenham have been doing a lot of work on them.
He said (official Spurs website): “We have a lot of training sessions where we are working on set-pieces. I know you guys like talking about Tottenham and set pieces.”
Spurs did concede one set-piece goal against Arsenal last campaign, as the Gunners were one of the better sides from dead-ball situations. A clash against Arteta’s men on Thursday would be a good yardstick for Spurs to judge themselves.
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