Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has confessed that Tottenham Hotspur's aggressive high defensive line is a tactic that would have filled him with dread during his playing days.
Neville's Nightmare Defensive Scenario
Speaking on the football show The Overlap, the Sky Sports pundit directly questioned Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven about the strategy. Neville stated that seeing the vast spaces left behind the defence "would scare me to death" if he were part of such a system. The ex-England right-back, who occasionally played centrally, was accustomed to a deeper defensive block during his career at Old Trafford.
Under manager Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham have become one of the Premier League's most extreme proponents of a high defensive line. This approach, also used by managers like Brentford's Thomas Frank, leaves enormous gaps behind the last defender for opposition attackers to exploit. For a traditional defender like Neville, this represents a fundamental shift in risk assessment.
Van de Ven's Pace-Fuelled Confidence
Dutch international Van de Ven, however, revealed a key reason for his personal comfort with the tactic: his exceptional recovery speed. The defender has been officially clocked as the fastest player in Premier League history, a record that allows him to mitigate the risks of playing so high up the pitch.
"For me, I know if the ball goes into the space, I have the speed to recover," Van de Ven explained to Neville. He did concede, however, that not all his teammates share this physical advantage, adding, "I don't know how it is for the other players. Some players who don't like to play with big spaces then maybe it is difficult to play a high line."
This admission highlights a potential vulnerability within the Spurs system. Van de Ven even shared that his regular defensive partner, the aggressive Cristian Romero, has sometimes asked for the line to drop deeper, saying, "He has come to me and said 'Micky we need to drop a bit'."
Scrutiny Amidst Poor Results
The tactical debate has intensified due to Tottenham's recent struggles on the pitch. The team has won only two of their last nine Premier League matches, keeping clean sheets solely in those two victories. Heavy defeats, including a 4-0 loss to Arsenal and a 3-0 reverse against Nottingham Forest, have placed Postecoglou's philosophy under the microscope.
Former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas, now a manager in Italy, has also criticised the approach. He argued that such a high line is reactive rather than proactive, stating, "You are basically reacting, you are not proactive. You are reacting to their movements, you are reacting to whatever the striker wants to do."
The discussion, sparked by Neville's candid questioning on 30 December 2025, underscores the ongoing evolution of defensive tactics in modern football. It pits the safety-first instincts of a previous generation against the high-risk, high-reward principles embraced by coaches like Postecoglou, with players like Van de Ven's unique physical attributes becoming essential to making it viable.
