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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has revealed he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to part ways with ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure came to an end a just 16 days after he led Tottenham to a win in the European final, delivering the team's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final campaign at the helm.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Spurs currently sit 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest at the weekend.

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

"I don't know how everything went behind the scenes. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that won silverware to Tottenham," he continued.

"Later, when he was dismissed, I sent a message to my father and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four losses in five games, and the team's season tailed off, ultimately failing to secure Champions League qualification by a mere two points.

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

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender thinks the team was missing a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Romero spoke about taking a more cautious style with the coach.

"I enjoyed the offensive play under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure at the back. I dislike getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

"At the beginning under Postecoglou, no team was used to playing against our style. We were playing unbelievable football."

"However, managers analyse everything and opponents knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a backup plan and we were being caught out. We didn't have solutions to resolve it."

"On one occasion me and Romero walked up to the gaffer and suggested we should change some things and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was responded, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"