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

Postecoglou's two-year tenure was terminated a just 16 days after he led Tottenham to a win in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first major trophy in 17 years.

However, this European success was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the side ending up in a disappointing 17th place in Postecoglou's final campaign at the helm.

He was replaced by former Brentford boss Frank during the off-season, but Tottenham are presently in 11th place, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest on Sunday.

"He was a fantastic 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 after - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

"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

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Scottish champions Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, replacing Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing an impressive points haul from his opening 10 league matches.

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

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

Lacking a Plan B

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Dutch international Van de Ven believes the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and defensive partner Romero spoke about taking a more cautious style with the manager.

"I enjoyed the offensive play under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure defensively. I don't like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he said.

"Initially with that system, no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing exceptional football."

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

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