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Spurs centre-back Van de Ven has admitted he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to dismiss ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure was terminated a mere 16 days after he led the team to victory in the European final, securing the team's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the side finishing in a lowly 17th place in his last season at the helm.

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 Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

"He was a really good manager. I have a lot of respect for him," the Dutch defender told a podcast.

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

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

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 league matches.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four losses in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a narrow two-point margin.

In the next campaign, they won just 11 out of 38 Premier League fixtures.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Netherlands international the defender believes the squad was missing a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure defensively. I dislike getting exposed every game on the break," he said.

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

"But, managers analyse everything and people figured out what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a plan B and we were being caught out. We lacked solutions to resolve it."

"At one point me and Romero walked up to the manager and suggested we need to change some things and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was responded, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"