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

The Australian's spell in charge was terminated a just over two weeks after he led Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, securing the club's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

However, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the side finishing in a lowly 17th position in his last season in charge.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the off-season, but Spurs currently sit 11th in the table, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

"He is a fantastic manager. I still really like him," Van de Ven stated on The Overlap podcast.

"I don't know 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 Tottenham," he added.

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

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his first ten league matches.

However, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four losses in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a mere two points.

The following season, they managed only 11 of their 38 league matches.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Dutch international Van de Ven believes the squad lacked a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Romero spoke about taking a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more solid defensively. I don't like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he said.

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

"But, coaches analyse everything and opponents knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a backup plan and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to resolve it."

"At one point me and Romero approached the manager and said we should change some things and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in 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.'"