Micky van de Ven urges Tottenham Hotspur to focus on the positives despite tough start

LONDON — After a tough start to the season, Tottenham Hotspur's new captain Micky van de Ven wants everyone to calm down a bit and focus on some of the positives. Yes, Spurs have lost their opening two games in the Premier League and have conceded five and scored zero, but there were some decent moments of promise in their home defeat against Newcastle United on Saturday. The Dutch center back believes things are heading in the right direction under Roberto De Zerbi as they develop a new style of play with plenty of new players settling in. "It's a lot of ball-playing football and I think we have a lot of quality and I think what you said, there were some glimpses of it that you see already," Van de Ven said. "There’s a lot of positive things to take and this is something we need to improve even more and make it better and better and something we need to work really hard for." Near-relegation still hanging in the air No matter how hard Spurs are working right now, it still feels tough for them to get over the fact that they stayed up on the final day of last season. The hangover of near catastrophic relegation is still there. When Spurs went 1-0 down in the second half against Newcastle, they pretty much crumbled. There was an acceptance of defeat among the fans and players. That mood is hard to shake. "I think we created a lot of chances and we had a lot of ball possession but then they scored the 1-0 and I have the feeling that our mood maybe went a little bit down at that point," Van de Ven admitted. "I think that's something we can maybe work on. A lot of positive things to take from today but also a lot of things we can improve." New signings will take time to bed in As eight new signings settle in at Spurs, improvement will clearly come soon. Van de Ven praised new forward Omar Marmoush and the quality he has, yet he also admitted it will take time for things to settle down. But he doesn't want that to be seen as an excuse for Spurs' slow start to the season. "A lot of new players are coming in so a lot of things are changing because you need to get used to each other as well as being on the pitch," Van de Ven said. "I won't say it's an excuse for the results we have the last two games but it's also something we need to improve. We need to get to know each other better and better and that's going to take some time probably. But we want to do it as quick as possible to play as good as possible. That's the most important thing right now.” After being at the World Cup with the Netherlands this summer, Van de Ven missed a lot of Spurs' preseason and revealed he recently had an issue with his knee which is now sorted. His presence at the heart of Spurs' defense is going to be crucial and De Zerbi needs the 25-year-old Dutchman, who signed a new long-term contract this summer, to step up and lead this team. Home form and building on glimpses of “unbelievable football” crucial Whatever positives are developing with their play on the pitch, this is still a Spurs team which has won just three of their last 23 home league games. How tough is it to change that mentality around? "It's really frustrating because at home you want to win every game in the season. You feel the fans behind us every time over and over again. It feels a little bit that we let them down," Van de Ven said. "That's something we need to change because teams need to hate to play here because they know it's going to be a really, really tough game to play away at Tottenham. That's something we can change as quick as possible and also the same for away days. We just need to be consistent. We need to play consistent and then the results will come.” Despite the tough start to this season and alarm bells ringing in the background given what happened last season, the main message from De Zerbi and his captain Van de Ven after this game was clear: don't panic. "There are a lot of games to go and I think there are a lot of positive things that we can take from today and we don't have to panic," Van de Ven said. "Because I think what you said before, there are some glimpses we played unbelievable football and now we need to make sure that the results are positive at the end of the game."