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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has admitted he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to part ways with former manager Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure was terminated a mere 16 days after he led the team to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

However, this European success was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th place in his last season at the helm.

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

"He was a fantastic manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender told The Overlap podcast.

"I'm not sure how everything went behind the scenes. It came as a shock. 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 mates and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, replacing Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 Premier League games.

However, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure Champions League qualification by a narrow two-point margin.

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

Lacking a Plan B

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

"I liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure defensively. I dislike being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

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

"But, managers study everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. Sometimes we didn't really have a backup plan and we were being caught out. We didn't have solutions to get out."

"At one point me and Romero walked up to the gaffer and suggested we need to change some things and be more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was like, 'I understand with you but I want you two guys to sort this on the pitch, ensure everybody knows.'"