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Spurs defender Micky van de Ven has admitted he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to part ways with ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

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

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

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the summer, but Spurs are presently in 11th place, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest on Sunday.

"He is a fantastic manager. I have a lot of respect for 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 after - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

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

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

Postecoglou arrived at Tottenham from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023-24 season, taking over from Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his first ten league matches.

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

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

Lacking a Plan B

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Dutch international Van de Ven thinks the team was missing a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed 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 defensively. I dislike being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

"Initially under Postecoglou, no team was accustomed to playing against our system. We were playing exceptional football."

"However, managers analyse 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 resolve it."

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