Both Jan Paul van Hecke and Micky van de Ven suffered very minor injuries over the September and October international break while with the Netherlands national team, and some Tottenham Hotspur fans took it as a statement of lesser value that Van de Ven was the one rested for the all important fixture at Old Trafford against Manchester United, which Spurs drew 1-1.
Marcos Senesi drew the start next to Van Hecke, who seems to be more favored by manager Roberto De Zerbi in the eyes of many; he is, after all, likened to De Zerbi as a son to him, which is a sentiment mutual to the center back. And once again, like on Matchday 1 in the debacle against Brentford, many Spurs fans felt Senesi outplayed Van Hecke.
But more to the point, there was a debate created immediately after the game by some, still jaded by some of Van de Ven's lesser performances last season, that Senesi should be starting over the club captain. After all, Senesi was better than VDV last season and was a Premier League Team of the Season contender as one of the stars behind Bournemouth's rise to the Europa League.
Micky van de Ven is too important in defensive security
That would be a very dangerous take, though. Senesi is better than Van de Ven on the ball, and you can argue that in terms of the placement of his passes and his consistency, he is at least as good as Van Hecke on the ball, too. Defensively, he has looked more secure than Van Hecke, but to say he is a better defender than Micky van de Ven would be borderline crazy.
Senesi regularly allows well over a dribble completed per game, and he is just as slow as Van Hecke. He is a player who can get caught out easily, and playing both Van Hecke and Senesi together is a recipe for disaster, especially against better teams than Manchester United that can counter Roberto De Zerbi's heavy possession based style at Tottenham Hotspur quickly up the pitch.
Meanwhile, Van de Ven is at his best defensively this season, averaging 0.2 dribbles completed per game, and Tottenham's best games defensively have come with VDV in the lineup. He has been part of their clean sheets. And while he averages far fewer defensive interventions than the 3-4 combined tackles and interceptions per game that Senesi and Van Hecke do, that's what makes pairing one of them with Van de Ven better than pairing both without him. De Zerbi loves Van de Ven, too, and he picked him as a captain for a reason and galvanized him back to being a top Premier League player shortly after being hired. There should be no issue or debate: Van de Ven is crucial to Spurs and can't be behind a slower, less secure defender.
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