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Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Van de Ven has revealed he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to part ways with former manager Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure came to an end a mere over two weeks after he guided the team to a win in the European final, delivering the club's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

However, this continental triumph was not matched in the Premier League, with the team finishing in a disappointing 17th place in his last campaign at the helm.

He was replaced by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the off-season, but Tottenham are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 defeat to Forest on Sunday.

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

"I'm not sure how everything went backstage. I didn't expect it. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that won silverware to Tottenham," he added.

"Later, when he got sacked, I texted to my father and my mates and said, 'I never expected this.'"

The Rise and Fall

The Australian manager joined Spurs from Celtic before the 2023-24 season, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his attacking style of play, collecting 26 points from his opening 10 Premier League games.

However, that unbeaten run came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five matches, and the team's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure a top-four finish by a narrow two-point margin.

In the next campaign, they managed only 11 of their 38 league matches.

Lacking a Plan B

While he appreciated the attacking approach, Netherlands international the defender believes the squad was missing a "plan B" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero spoke about taking a more defensive approach with the coach.

"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 explained.

"At the beginning with that system, no team was accustomed to playing against our style. We were playing exceptional football."

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

"At one point me and Romero approached the manager and suggested we need to change some things and play more defensive to make sure we secure victory in 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.'"