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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Van de Ven has revealed he "was completely surprised by" the club's move to dismiss former manager Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure came to an end a mere 16 days after he guided the team to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the team's first major trophy in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th place in Postecoglou's final campaign in charge.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the summer, but Tottenham currently sit in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, 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 a podcast.

"I'm not sure how everything went backstage. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he continued.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message 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 campaign, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, collecting an impressive points haul from his opening 10 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four losses in five matches, and the club's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure a top-four finish by a narrow two-point margin.

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender thinks 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 liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I appreciate 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 counter-attack," he explained.

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

"However, coaches analyse everything and people figured out what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a plan B and we were being caught out. We lacked answers to get out."

"At one point Romero and I walked up to the manager and suggested we need to adjust tactically and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, ensure everybody knows.'"