Liverpool Legend: AVB Must Get Signings Firing To Silence Critics

Alan Hansen believes that Andre Villas-Boas can only answer his critics by leading Tottenham to several games without a loss as he continues to come under pressure with the club sitting in ninth place.

Spurs drew with Manchester United at the weekend, making somewhat of a recovery from their 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City the week before, but Villas-Boas seemed far more concerned with discussing with journalists what he perceived to be a personal attack as his future with the club reportedly hangs in the balance.

But former Liverpool man Hansen believes that in order to well and truly silence his critics, the Tottenham manager will need to secure a run os positive results after a difficult start that has seen the side score just 11 league goals this season.

He told the Telegraph: "People will say that it is too early to be talking about his position at White Hart Lane and, in a perfect world, they would be right. But this is big-time football and there is no such thing as early.

"Managers live and die by their results and the only way Villas-Boas can banish the pressure he is under is by leading his team on a run of six to eight games without defeat that gets Spurs back in the top four."

With much talk surrounding the fact that some of Tottenham's big name signings have come up short so far in the current campaign, Hansen argued that this has compounded the problem for Villas-Boas, who wants to prove in his second season in charge of Spurs that he has the goods to be a long-term success with the club.

"The big problem for the Tottenham manager is that he spent more than £100  million on new signings in the summer and none of the players he brought to the club has yet justified the investment," he added.

"It is perhaps too early to judge any of them, but Villas-Boas does not have the time to be patient and wait for them to flourish. He needs performances right now.

"Soldado arrived from Valencia for £26 million this summer having earned a reputation as a top goalscorer in La Liga, but he has only scored once from open play in a Spurs shirt. Anyone who saw Soldado playing in Spain would know, however, that he is a forward who makes darting little runs onto the ball and feeds off chances in the penalty area."