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Spurs defender 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 mere over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to a win in the European final, securing the team's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final campaign in charge.

He was replaced by former Brentford boss Thomas Frank during the summer, but Tottenham are presently in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 defeat 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. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that won silverware to the club," he added.

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

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 league matches.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four defeats in five games, and the team's season tailed off, eventually missing out on a top-four finish by a narrow two points.

In the next campaign, they won just 11 out of 38 league matches.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Netherlands international the defender believes the squad was missing a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and defensive partner Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football at that time but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more solid defensively. I don't like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

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

"However, coaches analyse everything and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we didn't really have a backup plan and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to resolve it."

"On one occasion Romero and I walked up to the manager and suggested we should change some things and play more defensive to ensure we win those games. He was responded, 'I agree with you but I expect you two guys to handle this on the pitch, ensure everybody knows.'"