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

Postecoglou's two-year tenure was terminated a mere over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th place in his last season at the helm.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the summer, but Spurs are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 loss to Forest on Sunday.

"He is a really good manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender told The Overlap podcast.

"I'm not sure how everything went behind the scenes. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that won silverware to Tottenham," he continued.

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

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

Postecoglou joined Spurs from Celtic before the 2023-24 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 Premier League games.

However, that unbeaten run came to an abrupt end with four losses in five matches, and the team's season tailed off, ultimately missing out on Champions League qualification by a mere two points.

In the next campaign, they won just 11 of their 38 league matches.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Dutch international the defender thinks the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate 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.

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

"But, managers study everything and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a plan B and we were getting exposed. We lacked answers to get out."

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