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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's decision to dismiss ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure was terminated a just 16 days after he guided the team to a win in the European final, delivering the team's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

However, this continental triumph was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a disappointing 17th place in his last campaign in charge.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the off-season, but Tottenham are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 defeat to Forest at the weekend.

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

"I'm not sure how everything went backstage. It came as a shock. It was odd how everything went after - he's the manager that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I texted to my father and my mates and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, replacing Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, collecting 26 points from his first ten Premier League games.

However, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four losses in five matches, and the club's season tailed off, ultimately failing to secure a top-four finish by a narrow 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, Dutch international the defender thinks the squad was missing a "plan B" and disclosed he and defensive partner Romero discussed adopting a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football at that time 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 break," he said.

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

"However, managers analyse everything and opponents knew what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a backup plan and we were getting exposed. We lacked solutions to get out."

"At one point me and Romero approached the manager and said we should change some things and play more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was like, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"