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Spurs centre-back Van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's move to dismiss ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian's two-year tenure was terminated a mere 16 days after he guided Tottenham to victory in the Europa League final, delivering the club's first major trophy in 17 years.

However, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the side finishing in a disappointing 17th place in his last campaign in charge.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Thomas Frank during the summer, but Spurs are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

"He is a fantastic manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender told a 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 won silverware to Tottenham," he added.

"Afterwards, when he was dismissed, I texted to my father 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, taking over from Conte. He made a bright start with his attacking style of play, amassing 26 points 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 form deteriorated, ultimately missing out on a top-four finish by a mere two points.

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

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Dutch international the defender believes the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about taking a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I enjoyed the attacking football at that time 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 explained.

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

"But, managers analyse everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. Sometimes we didn't really have a plan B and we were getting exposed. We didn't have answers to resolve it."

"On one occasion Romero and I 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 want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"