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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Micky van de Ven has admitted he "never expected" the club's move to part ways with ex-boss Postecoglou.

The Australian's spell in charge was terminated a just over two weeks after he guided the team to a win in the European final, delivering the team's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

Yet, this European success was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th place in his last season in charge.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the summer, but Tottenham currently sit in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 loss to Forest on Sunday.

"He is a really good manager. I still really like him," Van de Ven stated on 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's the manager that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message to my father and my friends and said, 'This was the last thing I thought would happen.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

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 offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his first ten league matches.

Nevertheless, that fine start was halted with four losses in five matches, and the club's season tailed off, ultimately failing to secure Champions League qualification by a narrow two points.

The following season, they managed only 11 of their 38 Premier League fixtures.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

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

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with our current manager. 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 unbelievable football."

"But, coaches study everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. At times we didn't really have a plan B and we were getting exposed. We didn't have solutions to resolve it."

"On one occasion Romero and I approached the gaffer and said we should adjust tactically and play more defensive to ensure we win those games. He was like, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"