Former Tottenham star Rafael van der Vaart uses Virgil van Dijk to slam Micky van de Ven

Ex-Tottenham midfielder has taken a swipe at Micky van de Ven while praising Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, following the Netherlands' 1-0 defeat to Germany in the Nations League.

Ronald Koeman's team were beaten in Munich, courtesy of Jamie Leweling's second-half goal. The Dutch side, who had to rearrange their defence because of suspension after his red card against Hungary on Friday, struggled in the first half. Van de Ven was moved to the centre to fill in for Van Dijk, with Jorrel Hato making his debut at left-back.

Speaking on Dutch TV station NOS, Van der Vaart claimed that the Netherlands sorely missed Van Dijk in their loss to Germany. The former Ajax and Real Madrid forward confessed he was 'ashamed' of their first-half performance against the Germans.

"I don't easily get ashamed of the Dutch team, but today I did," Van der Vaart stated. "We attribute so many qualities to them, but it's completely wrong. You can analyse it, but everything just goes wrong."

Van der Vaart then singled the Spurs defender out, adding: "Then we have doubts about the absence of Virgil van Dijk, of course you miss him. All well and good, , but this is no Van Dijk."

Reflecting on the Dutch team's lacklustre performance, Koeman expressed his dissatisfaction, adding: "If you go back too far, you bring that on yourself. We came up short on all sides, perhaps in all facets of football.

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"We did things differently at half-time and then we got a bit more rest. But they were much better today. I am not satisfied by our performance.

"The Germans were the better, faster and physically stronger. They created more chances. We lost too many balls in the midfield. We went too far back. That was not the plan. The plan was to put pressure forward on the right side. But it did not happen."