‘Disagreeing in many ways’ – Thomas Frank fumes at Arne Slot over claim about ‘reckless’ Micky van de Ven

Tottenham Hotspur boss Thomas Frank has hit back at Liverpool head coach Arne Slot following his comments on Micky van de Ven.

Van de Ven inadvertently broke Reds striker Alexander Isak’s leg during Saturday’s 2-1 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

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Isak fired the defending champions in front shortly after replacing Conor Bradley at the break.

However, the former Newcastle man was forced off on the hour mark after Van de Ven’s attempt to prevent the Sweden international from opening the scoring and the striker’s leg became twisted under the momentum of the last-ditch tackle.

Hugo Ekitike doubled Liverpool’s advantage midway through the second half, while Richarlison halved the deficit late on to set up a tense finish.

Slot hit out at Spurs’ centre-back, deeming Van de Ven’s effort a ‘reckless challenge’.

“It was a reckless challenge,” the Reds boss said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“If you make a tackle like that ten times, ten times there is a serious chance the player gets a serious injury.”

Frank has since hit back at Slot, and claimed that if his player didn’t do all he could to deny Isak from scoring then he wasn’t a ‘true defender’.

“I’m obviously disagreeing in many ways,” the under-fire Spurs boss.

“We are talking about a defender in Micky van de Ven that will do everything he can to avoid the goal.

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“So it’s a transition. So he’s sprinting back in. There’s a ball slid down the side and he does everything he can to see if he can block that shot. So he’s sliding.

“Unfortunately, Isak plants his foot straight there and that makes it look worse than it is. I think that would be a natural reaction for any defender.

“I’ll put it this way, if my defenders don’t do that, then I don’t think they are true defenders. So I don’t see that at all.

“Normally, you haven’t seen any reckless challenges from Micky. As I remember it, he’s a very fair and competitive player.

“So that’s one thing. The other thing, you also know that the two players have sorted it out. They have spoken. So that’s a good sign of how they sorted it out. A good sign.”

Van de Ven’s defence

Van de Ven insists there was no ill-intent from the tackle and said after the defeat to Liverpool: “I just walked up to him because I saw he was hurt. 

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“Obviously I go for the ball and then I hit him at that moment. I don’t know exactly what happens at that point. 

“But for me, of course, I just wanted to play the ball and it was to block the shot that he was going to try to shoot. I hit him unfortunately and I haven’t seen him afterwards.

“But exactly at that moment I walked up to him and asked him, ‘are you okay?’ Obviously I want to try to block the ball and I don’t want to hurt the person.”

Spurs are next in action on Sunday December 28 when they make the short trip across the capital to take on Crystal Palace as they look to improve upon a record of just one win in their last eight league matches.

The north London side will be without summer signing Xavi Simons and captain Cristian Romero for the game at Selhurst Park after both received their marching orders against Liverpool at the weekend.

Pressure, meanwhile, is mounting on Frank to turn the club’s fortunes around, with the former Brentford boss the favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave their post.

And Frank’s hopes of seeing out the year with a much-needed win are hampered by the departure of assistant manager Matt Wells, who has been named the new manager of MLS side Colorado Rapids.