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Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven has admitted he "was completely surprised by" the club's move to dismiss former manager Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure was terminated a just 16 days after he guided Tottenham to a win in the European final, securing the team's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the Premier League, with the side 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," 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's the manager that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

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

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his first ten Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four losses in five games, and the team's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure a top-four finish by a mere two-point margin.

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Dutch international the defender believes the squad lacked a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and defensive partner Cristian Romero spoke about taking a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I enjoyed the attacking football at that time but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure at the back. I don't like getting exposed every game on the break," he said.

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

"But, coaches analyse everything and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a plan B and we were getting exposed. We didn't have solutions to get out."

"At one point me and Romero approached the manager and suggested we need to change some things and play more defensive to ensure we win those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"