Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has admitted his squad is "nowhere near" strong enough but warned supporters that "nothing magical is going to happen" in January.
The shortcomings of Postecoglou's squad were exposed in Thursday's 4-2 defeat to Brighton, when Spurs were missing nine players and played a four-man defence made up entirely of full-backs.
Postecoglou's selection concerns will only increase at the start of 2024 when captain Heung-min Son leaves for the Asian Cup with South Korea and Mali's Yves Bissouma and Senegal midfielder Pape Sarr compete in the Africa Cup of Nations.
The head coach has called on the club to do their January business early in the month, with Spurs prioritising a centre-back and set to consider moves for a midfielder and forward. But Postecoglou has moved to play down expectations of a transformative window.
"We are where we are. Nothing magical’s going to happen in the January window. What we need to do is just keep building," Postecoglou said ahead of the visit of Bournemouth on New Year's Eve.
"We’ve had one window with this team to change it around, to do things differently. The fact that we’re in the position we are is a credit to the players. For all the challenges we’ve had, we just kept planning forward and that’s what we’ll do.
"We’ll see what we can do in January but ultimately it’s about building a side that will get us to where we want to.”
Spurs trailed 4-0 to Brighton after 75 minutes at the Amex before a spirited late comeback went some way to papering over the cracks.
Postecoglou dismissed the suggestion that Spurs' injury crisis had helped him learn about which players he could trust long-term and admitted that the side's ability to play his high-octane, attacking football had been tested by their injury crisis.
"I don’t think you need to go through injuries to see [which players have a long-term future here]," he said. "What it has done is test the limits of our ability to play the football that we want within the context of the injuries we’ve had. It would be unfair to judge some players…
"The way we play takes a fairly hefty physical toll, more than the way other clubs play. For us to sustain and maintain that and be a team, it’s no secret we need a strong squad.
"We’re nowhere near that at the moment, understandably so, obviously we’ve only had one window. It was never going to happen [in one window].
"We’re still at the beginning. Within that context, we want to compete. We’ve got ourselves in a position where we can compete. That’s what we need to keep pushing forward for."
Postecoglou will also be without the suspended Dejan Kulusevski against the Cherries on Sunday after the Swede picked up a fifth booking of the season on the south coast, so Giovani Lo Celso is expected to come in, while Oliver Skipp should be fit again after a knock.
"Gio dropped out the team because he was injured," Postecoglou said. "It wasn’t by decision. He was going well when he got injured. We’re going to have to make another adjustment there. I thought Gio when he came on today was good. He was good last week when he came on. It’s good to have him back fit and available.
"Hopefully we might get Oliver Skipp back, probably the only fresh legs we’ll have to contribute to what we’re doing.
"But good challenge for us. We’re at home, whilst we’ve had a couple of losses at home, every home game we’ve been well in them, and we’ll need to be at our best to match Bournemouth on Sunday."
Postecoglou added that he needs to "protect" his remaining players ahead of another huge challenge against Andoni Iraola's in-form side.
"The sheer effort of some of our players over the last eight or nine weeks has been enormous," said the Australian. "I’ve got to make sure they’re protected. In terms of it’s not through lack of effort that we’re not consistently playing the football we want to. It’s just we’re asking it of too few.
"It will be a different challenge, obviously Bournemouth are in good form, they do play good football as well, they play football in terms of they want to play and get the ball down. It will be a good challenge for us."
One deal which is expected to happen in early January is former captain Hugo Lloris' permanent transfer to Los Angeles FC, bringing down the curtain on his storied 11 years at Spurs.
"I’m not across that," Postecoglou said. "Obviously there’s stuff happening but I’ve been focused on the game. But I’m sure we’ll hear something next couple of days."
