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

Postecoglou's spell in charge was terminated a mere over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to a win in the European final, securing the club's first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Yet, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the side ending up in a disappointing 17th position in Postecoglou's final season in charge.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the off-season, but Tottenham currently sit in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

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

"I don't know how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was odd how everything went afterwards - he's the manager that brought a trophy to Tottenham," he continued.

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

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his attacking style 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 a top-four finish by a mere two-point margin.

The following season, they won just 11 of their 38 league matches.

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Dutch international Van de Ven thinks the team was missing a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I enjoyed the attacking football under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I don't like getting exposed 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 unbelievable football."

"However, managers study everything and opponents knew what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a backup plan and we were being caught out. We didn't have solutions to resolve it."

"At one point me and Romero walked up to the gaffer and suggested we should change some things and be more defensive to make sure 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, ensure everybody knows.'"