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Spurs did rally with a 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Sunday to provide fresh belief and Van de Ven, criticised for a red card against Crystal Palace earlier this month, has dismissed accusations that some players have \u201cchecked out\u201d in the battle to beat the drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I can say is it\u2019s not true,\u201d he said on Tuesday on the eve of the second-leg tie with Atletico.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be strange if a player was in the dressing room now and saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to leave either way, or… it doesn\u2019t affect me\u2019. So, I think it\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d <\/p>\n
ENFIELD, ENGLAND – MARCH 17: Micky van de Ven of Tottenham Hotspur talks to the media during a Press Conference at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre on March 17, 2026 in Enfield, England. (Photo by Andrew Redington\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old added: \u201cThe other day when we read something about one guy that said to everyone that he\u2019s probably going to leave and doesn\u2019t care about the situation they\u2019re in… People are just making things up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating for us because it brings so much more trouble, because the fans are starting to believe this.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrust me, all the people involved on the pitch, the staff, the players, everyone, they care so much about the situation we\u2019re in right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to turn things around and that\u2019s the most important, that\u2019s the main focus for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Full UCL Wrap: Carnage for EPL sides | 02:37<\/p>\n
Van de Ven could only watch on television, following his red card against Palace, as Spurs battled hard for a point at Anfield and the Dutch defender is eager to play his part against Atletico, and in Sunday\u2019s relegation \u2018six-pointer\u2019 with Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they showed, the character they showed in the game was unbelievable, and when Richy (Richarlison) scores and it\u2019s 1-1, it\u2019s just happiness at home, screaming towards the TV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow it\u2019s just a beautiful game. We have nothing to lose. We want to do something special.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything to change things around, tomorrow first, and then afterwards in the Premier League games coming up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tottenham Hotspur’s Croatian head coach Igor Tudor (L) and Tottenham Hotspur’s Dutch defender #37 Micky van de Ven attends a press conference at the Tottenham training centre in Enfield, north London, on March 17, 2026, the eve of their UEFA Champions League Last 16, second-leg football match against Atletico Madrid. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Caretaker boss Igor Tudor said it was not \u201cimpossible\u201d for Spurs to overturn a three-goal deficit against Atletico.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s loss in the Spanish capital led some pundits to call for Tudor to be dismissed just a month into his stint as Spurs\u2019 interim head coach.<\/p>\n
But the Liverpool draw provided much-needed respite and Tudor speaking about the Atletico tie, said: \u201cDifficult but not impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to stay in the game as much as possible and the game can be long, so focus on our strengths, our things we can have tomorrow and everything still to play. So, believe we can do it. That\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micky van de Ven is adamant it is \u201cnonsense\u201d to suggest that Tottenham Hotspur players are indifferent about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[2620,1206,64,63,6257,269215,271009,1208,2057,596,6234,6246,2105,5330,112414,83152,2022,144829,3583,1614,668,217131,257397,85,271010,271011,271012,3586],"class_list":["post-547573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-andrew-redington","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-champions-league","tag-croatian-head-coach","tag-defender-hits-backpremier","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-football-match","tag-football-news","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-head-coach","tag-igor-tudor","tag-interim-head-coach","tag-london","tag-micky-van","tag-northern-europe","tag-premier-league","tag-press-conference","tag-red-card","tag-relegation-scrap","tag-sports","tag-star-fires","tag-training-centre","tag-uefa-champions-league-last","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}