🔗 Share this article

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

The Australian's two-year tenure came to an end a just 16 days after he led Tottenham to a win in the Europa League final, securing the team's first major trophy in 17 years.

However, this continental triumph was not matched in the domestic league, with the side finishing in a lowly 17th place in his last campaign in charge.

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

"He is a really good manager. I have a lot of respect for him," the Dutch defender stated on The Overlap podcast.

"I don't know how everything went behind the scenes. It came as a shock. It was odd how everything went after - he is the coach that won silverware 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

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Antonio Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing 26 points from his first ten league matches.

Nevertheless, that unbeaten run came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually failing to secure Champions League qualification by a mere two-point margin.

The following season, they won just 11 of their 38 league matches.

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Dutch international the defender thinks the squad lacked a "plan B" and revealed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I appreciate what we have now with our current manager. We are more secure at the back. I dislike getting exposed every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

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

"But, managers study everything and opponents knew what we were doing. Sometimes we didn't really have a backup plan and we were getting exposed. We lacked answers to resolve it."

"On one occasion me and Romero walked up to the manager and suggested we need to adjust tactically and play more defensive to ensure we secure victory in those games. He was responded, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, ensure everybody knows.'"