🔗 Share this article

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

Postecoglou's spell in charge was terminated a mere 16 days after he guided the team to a win in the Europa League final, delivering the team's first major trophy in 17 years.

However, this European success was not mirrored in the Premier League, with the side ending up in a disappointing 17th place in Postecoglou's final campaign in charge.

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

"He is a fantastic manager. I have a lot of respect for him," Van de Ven 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 afterwards - he is the coach that won silverware to Tottenham," he continued.

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

The Rise and Fall

Postecoglou arrived at Spurs from Celtic ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, taking over from Conte. He enjoyed early success with his offensive philosophy of play, collecting an impressive points haul from his opening 10 league matches.

Nevertheless, that fine start came to an abrupt end with four defeats in five games, and the club's season tailed off, eventually missing out on Champions League qualification by a mere two points.

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

Lacking a Plan B

Although he enjoyed Postecoglou's style, Dutch international the defender believes the squad lacked a "alternative strategy" and disclosed he and fellow centre-back Romero discussed taking a more defensive approach with the coach.

"I liked the attacking football under Postecoglou but I like what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure defensively. I don't like being vulnerable every game on the counter-attack," he explained.

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

"But, coaches study everything and opponents knew what we were doing. Sometimes we lacked a backup plan and we were being caught out. We didn't have solutions to resolve it."

"On one occasion Romero and I walked up to the manager and suggested we should adjust tactically and be more defensive to make sure we win those games. He was like, 'I understand with you but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, ensure everybody knows.'"