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Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven has admitted he "never expected" the club's decision to dismiss ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure came to an end a just over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, securing the club's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this continental triumph was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in his last season in charge.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Tottenham are presently in 11th place, with 22 points, following a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

"He is a really good manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender stated on a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went after - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message to my father and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, replacing Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five games, and the team's season tailed off, ultimately missing out on a top-four finish by a mere two points.

In the next campaign, they managed only 11 of their 38 Premier League fixtures.

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Dutch international the defender thinks the squad was missing a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more defensive approach with the manager.

"I enjoyed the attacking football at that time but I appreciate what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure at the back. I dislike being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

"Initially with that system, no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing exceptional football."

"However, coaches analyse everything and opponents knew what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a plan B and we were being caught out. We didn't have solutions to get out."

"On one occasion me and Romero walked up to the manager and said we need to adjust tactically and play more defensive to ensure we win those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"