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

The Australian's spell in charge came to an end a just 16 days after he guided Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the team's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a disappointing 17th place in his last season in charge.

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

"He is a really good manager. I have a lot of respect for him," Van de Ven told The Overlap 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 brought a trophy to Tottenham," he added.

"Later, when he got sacked, I texted to my dad and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager joined Tottenham from Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, replacing Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 Premier League games.

However, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five games, and the team's season tailed off, ultimately failing to secure Champions League qualification by a narrow two-point margin.

The following season, they won just 11 of their 38 league matches.

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Netherlands international Van de Ven believes the squad lacked a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I enjoyed 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 being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

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

"However, coaches study everything and people knew what we were doing. At times we lacked a plan B and we were being caught out. We lacked answers to resolve it."

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