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

Postecoglou's two-year tenure was terminated a mere over two weeks after he led Tottenham to a win in the European final, securing the team's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

Yet, this continental triumph was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a lowly 17th position in Postecoglou's final season at the helm.

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the summer, but Tottenham are presently in 11th place, with 22 points from 16 games, following a 3-0 defeat to Forest at the weekend.

"He is a fantastic manager. I still really like him," the Dutch defender stated on a podcast.

"I don't know how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went after - he is the coach that won silverware to Tottenham," he continued.

"Later, 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 Celtic before the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Antonio Conte. He made a bright start with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting an impressive points haul from his opening 10 Premier League games.

However, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a narrow two points.

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender thinks the team was missing a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the manager.

"I enjoyed the attacking football at that time 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.

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

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

"At one point me and Romero approached the gaffer and said we need to change some things and play more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was responded, 'I agree with you but I want you two guys to handle this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"