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Tottenham Hotspur defender Van de Ven has revealed he "never expected" the club's decision to dismiss ex-boss Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's two-year tenure came to an end a mere 16 days after he guided Tottenham to a win in the European final, delivering the club's first major trophy in nearly two decades.

However, this continental triumph was not mirrored in the domestic league, with the team ending up in a lowly 17th place in his last campaign in charge.

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

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

"I'm not sure how everything went behind the scenes. It came as a shock. It was strange how everything went afterwards - he is the coach that brought a trophy to the club," he added.

"Later, when he was dismissed, 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 joined Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting 26 points from his first ten league matches.

However, that unbeaten run was halted with four defeats in five games, and the team's form deteriorated, ultimately failing to secure Champions League qualification by a narrow two points.

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

Lacking a Plan B

While he appreciated Postecoglou's style, Netherlands international the defender believes the team lacked a "plan B" and revealed he and defensive partner Cristian Romero spoke about adopting a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I liked the offensive play under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure defensively. I dislike 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."

"However, managers study everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a backup plan and we were getting exposed. We didn't have solutions to resolve it."

"On one occasion me and Romero approached the manager and suggested we should change some things and be more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was like, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.'"