🔗 Share this article

Spurs centre-back Van de Ven has revealed he "was completely surprised by" the club's decision to dismiss ex-boss Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou's spell in charge was terminated a just over two weeks after he guided Tottenham to victory in the European final, securing the team's first piece of silverware in nearly two decades.

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

He was succeeded by ex-Brentford manager Frank during the off-season, but Spurs are presently 11th in the table, with 22 points, following a 3-0 loss to Forest at the weekend.

"He is 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 odd how everything went afterwards - he's the manager that brought a trophy to the club," he continued.

"Afterwards, when he got sacked, I sent a message to my dad and my friends and said, 'I never expected this.'"

Initial Success and Subsequent Struggle

The Australian manager arrived at Tottenham from Celtic ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking over from Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, amassing 26 points from his first ten league matches.

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

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

Tactical Concerns Revealed

Although he enjoyed the attacking approach, Dutch international Van de Ven believes the squad lacked a "plan B" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Cristian Romero discussed adopting a more cautious style with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football at that time but I like what we have now with our current manager. We are more solid defensively. I don't like being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

"Initially with that system, no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing unbelievable football."

"But, managers analyse everything and opponents figured out what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked 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 suggested we should change some things and be more defensive to ensure 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.'"