Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham considered signing Ivan Toney before Dominic Solanke and fans should not “rush to judgement” on the £65m striker.
Solanke, 27, has yet to score for Spurs in his three appearances this season since joining from Bournemouth in August.
Fellow England striker Toney eventually moved to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli from Brentford for £40m on deadline day.
Spurs have won just one of their four Premier League games and host Brentford on Saturday.
“We did look at him [Toney] but Dom was the one we wanted that fitted the profile we were looking for at the time,” said Postecoglou.
And the Spurs boss stressed that Solanke’s lack of goals in his first two Premier League games is not an issue.
“Just take a breath, do a little bit of yoga, think about the world for a second and then make an assessment after,” he added.
“We don’t have to rush to make judgement all the time because the alternative is he may have got off to a great start, he is fit, scored in all four games, is flying and then he goes through a patch like all strikers where he doesn’t score.
“I just don’t look at those things. What I look at is he has come in, fitted really well and quite logically has picked up an injury that has disrupted the way he wanted to start his career, but he’s still got plenty of time for that.”
There is significant talk about discontent from Spurs fans ahead of Saturday’s London derby with Brentford.
“Yes, they had a cake for me,” Postecoglou replied when asked about becoming the first manager to last a full season at Spurs since Mauricio Pochettino in the 2018-19 campaign.
“It [the negativity] doesn’t seep into my environment. The fans are free to feel how they want to feel and it doesn’t impact me or what we are trying to achieve.
“For me, you can get overly impacted in both ways, we just have to stay clear-eyed and focused on what we want to achieve and what kind of team we want to be.
He added: “If you’re swimming against the tide, that’s alright, that makes you stronger. I think a big part of it [is change], when there is real change it unsettles people and they want comfort and security, but I came in here to try to do something that hasn’t been done for a while.
“You can’t just think me walking in will change things, you’ve got to change things and it can be unsettling but it is necessary for us to achieve what we want to.”