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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's move to part ways with former manager Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's spell in charge was terminated a mere over two weeks after he led the team to a win in the European final, securing the team's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

Yet, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the team finishing in a disappointing 17th position in Postecoglou's final season in charge.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the summer, but Tottenham are presently in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 loss to Forest at the weekend.

"He is a really good manager. I still really like him," Van de Ven stated on a podcast.

"I'm not sure how everything went behind the scenes. I didn't expect it. It was odd how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he continued.

"Later, when he got sacked, I texted to my father and my friends and said, 'I never expected this.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

The Australian manager joined Tottenham from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, replacing Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his first ten Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five matches, and the club's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure Champions League qualification by a mere two-point margin.

The following season, they managed only 11 out of 38 Premier League fixtures.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Dutch international Van de Ven believes the team was missing a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about taking a more defensive approach with the manager.

"I enjoyed the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I don't like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he said.

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

"But, managers study everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. At times we lacked a plan B and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to get out."

"On one occasion Romero and I approached the manager and suggested we need to adjust tactically and be more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"