Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven has revealed that members of the Spurs squad implored manager Ange Postecoglou to change tactics towards the end of their successful Europa League campaign last season.
Spurs won their first trophy in 17 years under Postecoglou with a win a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the Europa League final back in May, though the Australian was subsequently sacked after steering the club to a 17th-placed finish in the Premier League.
Postecoglou’s tactics repeatedly came under scrutiny during his time in north London, with Spurs sometimes criticised for seemingly not being able to sit back and defend draws or leads.
And Van de Ven agreed that Spurs “didn’t really have a Plan B” sometimes, with the players consistently “getting exposed” as they “didn’t really have solutions”.
“In games where we were 1-0 up, we can’t keep playing our football, sometimes we need to just sit back, make sure no one comes through us,” explained Van de Ven on the Overlap.
“Me and Cuti [Cristian Romero] were playing only the Europa League games last season. At one point, we just walked up to the gaffer and said that we need to change some things and play more defensive sometimes, we need to make sure we win those games,” added the Dutchman.
“We played away at Frankfurt and were 1-0 up, and we can’t keep attacking, we just need to come back and have a low block and make sure we go to the next round,” he explained.
“We sat with him and he agreed with us on some things and he said, ‘I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch – to make sure that this is something everybody knows’, and to speak with everybody on the pitch.
“In the meetings, he said that we were going to change some things sometimes in different situations. He said to me and Cuti personally, ‘You guys make sure the other guys listen to you, you have a reputation in the team, everybody respects you and knows how important you guys are, so make sure the guys follow what we say on the pitch.’”
Spurs eventually beat Frankfurt 1-0 away to seal a 2-1 win in the quarter-final of the Europa League, and they went on to beat Bodo/Glimt in the semi-finals before the final against United in Bilbao.
When asked about the mentality and tactics going into that game, Van de Ven explained: “We spoke with Ange before the final, everybody knew that we need to win a trophy, it doesn’t matter how we’re going to do it.
“Even then Ange said at the beginning that we need to play from the back and do what we always do, but when it came to half-time and we were 1-0 up, Ange just said: ‘Keep pressing but when it doesn’t work out just drop back and make sure we lock it, make sure they don’t come through.’”
Spurs ran out 1-0 winners at the San Mames, courtesy of a goal from Brennan Johnson, though the result was not enough for Postecoglou to keep his job.
Despite this, Van de Ven was complimentary of his former boss, stating that he firmly believed in the tactics and system.
“When the results were getting down, Ange was really focused on his system, he really believed in his system, and to this day I believe in his system because I think we played some unbelievable football. So, the system works, but at some points I think we needed to adapt a bit more,” he added.