Brennan on Micky: “He blows my mind, to be honest”
Mon 30 September 2024, 14:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Brennan Johnson was quick to turn the spotlight on Micky van de Ven after scoring his fourth goal in as many games to set us on the way to a 3-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The defender provided another elite assist with only three minutes on the clock, this time reading the play as Marcus Rashford looked to break, intercepting and sprinting forward from midway in our half to the United byline, where, at full speed, he still delivered the perfect cross for Brennan to tap home at the far post. It was almost a repeat of Micky’s assist for Heung-Min Son in our 4-0 win against Everton on 24 August, where he sprinted box to box before passing for Sonny to finish.
“The goal is all about him,” said Brennan. “I mean, he blows my mind, to be honest. It's a six foot four centre-back who can run as fast as anyone with the ball, which is a special talent in itself, and a lot of players who aren't in that position often might run down a blind alley, but he knew exactly what he was doing. He saw the gap, he's fast enough to get through it and then the cross is unbelievable. It was just my job to be in the right position.”
Brennan also hit the post in a dominant first half display that warranted more than our 1-0 lead, although we quickly rectified that at the start of the second half when Deki Kulusevski found a fine finish to Brennan’s deflected cross for 2-0. Dominic Solanke completed the job with his third goal in as many games after Pape Matar Sarr flicked on Lucas Bergvall’s corner.
Speaking afterwards on our Review Show, Brennan described it as an ‘incredible win’. “I think the performance, the execution of a game plan, intensity, hard work… it had a bit of everything,” he told us.
“This can be a tricky place. We saw that last season when, in a similar way, we were kind of dominating them, but they're lethal on the counterattack. We knew that was their best quality and we had to nullify it and stamp our authority in the game early, and it was perfect.”
Asked about that game plan, Brennan responded: “It was about bringing the intensity. We’re a team that plays best on the front foot and we can’t take five, 10 minutes to get into a game, we have to be on it and from minute one, our passing was crisp, and we knew it had to be fast, because they’re not an extreme pressing team, so they could make it difficult if we didn’t move the ball quickly. Also, to be wary of the counterattack. To be able to do both things and attack with real intent is what we wanted to do, and we did it all well.”
