Saturday 13 December 2014 14:07, UK
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock admits the club need to spend in January in order to secure their Premier League survival.
Palace have managed just one win – a 3-1 victory over Liverpool – in their last nine league games and that run of results has left them just one point above the relegation zone.
Warnock believes it is vital for Palace to bring in reinforcements and freshen up a playing squad which will be stretched thin over the hectic Christmas period.
"We've got to bring players in," said Warnock. "Without knocking our players, they've got to be better than we've already got and it takes quite a lot of money to do that.
We've got some good players so it's just trying to add two or three players to the squad that we've got to give us that bit more in depth.
"We've got some good players so it's just trying to add two or three players to the squad that we've got to give us that bit more in depth.
"The substitutes' bench hasn't had a lot of players on it for me to change a game so that's something for the second half of the season, where we can look to influence the game by the substitutes."
Palace have struggled for goals in recent games, scoring just once in their last three league outings and defensive midfielder Mile Jedinak is the club’s top scorer in the league with five goals.
The Eagles' top three forwards – Fraizer Campbell, Marouane Chamakh and Dwight Gayle – have combined for just six league goals and Warnock admits that return is not good enough.
"I think we've known all along that we haven't got that clinical striker," Warnock said.
"I think we've scored quite a few goals over the season but they just seem to be in spurts. When we score, we score three.
"We've got to start putting lesser chances away that would have earned us quite a lot more points."
Veteran forward Andrew Johnson has failed to get on the pitch for Palace in the league due to a raft of injuries and, with the 33-year-old’s contract set to expire in January, Warnock admitted he is unlikely to keep him.
"If he can get back to fitness he can do a job in the Premier League but it's a big question mark in the space of three weeks how fit he's going to be able to get," Warnock said.
"He's been unlucky, he's hurt his calf for the last few weeks and I'd just told him he was going to be on the bench for the Liverpool game and he pulled up in training, it's a blow to him.
"Unfortunately we all get older, you get these problems and you can't shake them off."
