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Spurs defender Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's move to dismiss ex-boss Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's spell in charge came to an end a just over two weeks after he led the team to a win in the European final, delivering the team's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the side finishing in a lowly 17th place in his last campaign at the helm.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Spurs 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," the Dutch defender told a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went backstage. 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.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I texted to my dad and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager joined Tottenham from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing 26 points from his opening 10 league matches.

However, that fine start was halted with four losses in five games, and the club's season tailed off, ultimately missing out on a top-four finish by a mere two points.

In the next campaign, they won just 11 of their 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 revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure defensively. I don't like being vulnerable every game on the break," he said.

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

"But, managers analyse everything and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a plan B and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to get out."

"At one point Romero and I walked up to the manager and said we should adjust tactically and play more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was like, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"