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Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's move to dismiss former manager Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's spell in charge was terminated a just over two weeks after he led the team to victory in the European final, securing the club's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th place in his last season at the helm.

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

"He was a fantastic manager. I have a lot of respect for him," Van de Ven told a podcast.

"I'm not sure how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he continued.

"Afterwards, when he was dismissed, I sent a message to my father and my mates and said, 'I never expected this.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting an impressive points haul from his first ten Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that unbeaten run was halted with four losses in five matches, and the club's form deteriorated, eventually missing out on a top-four finish by a mere two-point margin.

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international Van de Ven thinks the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed taking a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more solid at the back. I don't like getting exposed every game on the break," he said.

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

"But, managers study everything and opponents knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a plan B and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to resolve it."

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