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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 Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure 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 nearly two decades.

However, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in his last season in charge.

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 Forest at the weekend.

"He was a fantastic manager. I still really like him," Van de Ven stated on 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 Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I texted to my father and my friends and said, 'I never expected this.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

Postecoglou joined Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 league matches.

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

In the next campaign, they won just 11 out of 38 Premier League fixtures.

Lacking a Plan B

While he appreciated the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender believes the team lacked a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and defensive partner Romero spoke about adopting a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I don't like being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

"At the beginning under Postecoglou, no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing unbelievable 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 lacked answers to resolve it."

"On one occasion Romero and I walked up to the manager and said we need to change some things and play more defensive to ensure we win those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"