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Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's decision to part ways with ex-boss Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure came to an end a mere 16 days after he guided Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, securing the club's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th position in his last campaign in charge.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the summer, but Spurs are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

"He was a fantastic manager. I still really like him," Van de Ven told a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went behind the scenes. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went after - he's the manager that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he continued.

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

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

Postecoglou joined Tottenham from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023-24 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his attacking style of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, that unbeaten run came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five games, and the team's form deteriorated, 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.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender believes the team lacked a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the coach.

"I enjoyed the attacking football under Postecoglou 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 counter-attack," he explained.

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

"But, managers study 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 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 ensure we win those games. He was responded, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"