Andre Villas-Boas Rules out Going in For Left-back

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has ruled out moving for a left-back in January in spite of Danny Rose suffering from intermittent injury issues throughout this season.

The former Porto manager had spent more than £100m last summer from the money from Gareth Bale's transfer to Real Madrid. However, the north London club are yet to hit top gear and their performance this season has been quite lacking. The likes of Erik Lamela, Etienne Capoue, Roberto Soldado are yet to impress which has left AVB with a major problem when selecting his starting eleven.

Their best defender last season, Jan Vertonghen, is being deployed at left-back and the Belgian is unhappy with his role away from his preferred centre-back position. The defender wants to make it to the Belgium squad for the World Cup in 2014 and wants Villas-Boas to bring in reinforcements in the upcoming transfer window. However, AVB is unwilling to succumb to his players' whims and has categorically denied his interest in bringing in another defender in January.

"No, I don't think so," AVB said when asked if he is looking for a Rose replacement.

"Danny Rose is still out but making good progress on his injury so we're looking for a two- or three-week period now finally for his return. Christian] Eriksen is obviously out, hopefully only for four weeks, due to his injury for Denmark. The rest of the team is back in training - [Vlad] Chiriches, [Nacer] Chadli, Etienne [Capoue] and now Zeki Fryers. All of the team is in contention to be selected for the game," he added.

Tottenham are currently seventh in the league with 20 points, level with Manchester United and Everton and will face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. AVB is wary of the attacking threat posed by the Citizens and insists that they have to be at their best to extract a result.

"Their goal tally is absolutely incredible, including their last big result against Norwich. We have to take their striking force into account, the players they have in attack, players that have been extraordinary this season like Yaya [Toure] and Fernandinho. We're unsure whether [David] Silva will return to the team or not but their attacking force is tremendous," he said.