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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has revealed he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to dismiss former manager Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure came to an end a mere 16 days after he led Tottenham to a win in the European final, delivering the club's first major trophy in 17 years.

Yet, this European success was not matched in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final season at the helm.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Spurs currently sit 11th in the table, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

"He was a fantastic manager. I have a lot of respect for him," the Dutch defender stated on a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went after - he's the manager that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

"Afterwards, when he was dismissed, I sent a message to my dad and my mates and said, 'I never expected this.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager arrived at Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his first ten Premier League games.

However, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four losses in five matches, and the club's form deteriorated, eventually missing out on a top-four finish by a narrow two-point margin.

In the next campaign, they managed only 11 of their 38 Premier League fixtures.

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender believes the team was missing a "plan B" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more solid defensively. I don't like being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

"At the beginning with that system, no team was used to playing against our system. 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 getting exposed. We didn't have answers to get out."

"At one point Romero and I approached the manager and said we need to change some things and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was responded, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"