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Spurs defender Micky van de Ven has admitted he "was completely surprised by" the club's move to dismiss former manager Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's spell in charge came to an end a mere 16 days after he led the team to a win in the European final, securing the club's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

However, this European success was not matched in the Premier League, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final 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, following a 3-0 loss to Forest at the weekend.

"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 behind the scenes. I didn't expect it. It was odd how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he was dismissed, I sent a message to my dad and my friends 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 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, amassing 26 points from his opening 10 league matches.

However, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five matches, and the club's form deteriorated, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a mere two-point margin.

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Netherlands international the defender believes the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Romero spoke about adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I liked the attacking football at that time but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more solid at the back. I dislike being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he said.

"At the beginning under Postecoglou, no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing exceptional football."

"However, managers study everything and opponents knew what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a plan B and we were being caught out. We lacked answers to get out."

"At one point Romero and I walked up to 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 want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"