Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham's January transfer business will depend on the state of his squad after revealing he has already held "a number of meetings" with technical director Johan Lange about the winter window.
Postecoglou's squad is currently stretched by the Thursday-Sunday schedule and long-term injuries to Richarlison, Wilson Odobert, Micky van de Ven (all hamstring) and Guglielmo Vicario (ankle surgery), as well as Rodrigo Bentancur's seven-match domestic ban.
Cristian Romero is "unlikely" to return from injury for Sunday's visit of Everton after missing the last two matches with foot and hamstring niggles, while Mikey Moore remains sidelined after being hit hard by a virus.
Asked about the club's January transfer plans, Postecoglou said: "We're always planning, planning for every scenario.
"A lot of it will depend on where we are as a squad at that time. Between now and then, it is only really Romero and Van de Ven who will be back in that time frame.
“But Richy will hopefully be back in the New Year and we will just assess where we are squad-wise but certainly, with Johan I've already had a number of meetings for a strategy in January.
"I think last year we did a little bit of business which ended up helping us, but nothing concrete now because January is always tricky and it depends on where we are squad-wise."
Postecoglou believes the days of streamlined squads are coming to an end, with clubs needing bigger rosters to cope with the ever-increasing schedule.
"It is not just the fixtures, it is the attrition rate, we've got a lot of injuries but a lot of clubs have," he added.
"I think we've been talking about it for a while but at some point, it is going to come home to roost for all the powers that be because players are getting overloaded, there is no doubt about that, there is too much evidence.
“You're either going to get a diminished product with the best players not out there or clubs will have to carry bigger squads to cater for the demands of it."
Spurs had five teenagers on the bench for Thursday's 2-2 draw with Roma in the Europa League, with Malachi Hardy and Luca Williams-Barnett, both 16, back at school on Friday morning.
Postecoglou believes Spurs are in a strong position on multiple fronts, despite the "limiting factors" which have impacted their season so far.
"We're in an OK position in the league," he said. "Safe to say we could be in a stronger position but we're still there or thereabouts.
"We're still in the Carabao Cup, we were out of the Carabao Cup this time last year. In Europe, we're still in a good position to get to the next round and we've had to deal with adversity. So, so far our season has been solid.
"We've obviously had some extremes which always taints people’s picture of where we're at but I try to step back and have a broader view. Again, we had four schoolboys on the bench last night - two were actually at school this morning.
“We're working hard with some pretty limiting factors and still maintaining competitiveness in the competitions we're in. We're in an OK space."
