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

The Australian's spell in charge came to an end a mere over two weeks after he guided the team to a win in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final season at the helm.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Spurs currently sit in 11th place, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest at the weekend.

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

"I'm not sure how everything went backstage. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he's the manager that won silverware to Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message to my dad and my friends and said, 'I never expected this.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager arrived at Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four losses in five matches, and the team's season tailed off, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a narrow two-point margin.

In the next campaign, they won just 11 out of 38 Premier League fixtures.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Dutch international Van de Ven believes the squad was missing a "plan B" and revealed 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 Thomas Frank. We are more secure defensively. I don't like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

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

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

"At one point me and Romero approached the gaffer and suggested we should change some things and play more defensive to ensure 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.'"