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Spurs defender Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's decision to part ways with former manager Postecoglou.

The Australian's spell in charge was terminated a mere over two weeks after he led the team to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final season at the helm.

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

"He is a fantastic manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender stated on a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went behind the scenes. I didn't expect it. It was odd how everything went after - he's the manager that won silverware to Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message to my father 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 Conte. He enjoyed early success with his attacking style of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 league matches.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four defeats in five games, and the club's season tailed off, ultimately 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.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender believes the team lacked a "plan B" and disclosed he and defensive partner Cristian Romero spoke about adopting a more defensive approach with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure defensively. I dislike being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

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

"However, coaches study 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 should change some things and play more defensive to make sure 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, make sure everybody knows.'"