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

The Australian's spell in charge was terminated a mere over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to a win in the European final, securing the team's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in his last season at the helm.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the summer, but Tottenham currently sit 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest on Sunday.

"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 backstage. It came as a shock. It was odd how everything went after - he's the manager that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he continued.

"Later, when he was dismissed, I sent a message to my dad and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou arrived at Tottenham from Scottish champions Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his first ten league matches.

However, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five matches, and the club's form deteriorated, ultimately failing to secure Champions League qualification 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 lacked a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and defensive partner Romero spoke about adopting a more defensive approach with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I dislike getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

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

"But, managers analyse everything and people figured out what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a plan B and we were getting exposed. We lacked answers to get out."

"On one occasion me and Romero approached the manager and said we need to 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 handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"