HIBS head coach Neil Lennon has warned the Leith side will finish in the Ladbrokes Premiership’s bottom six if they do not strengthen the squad this month.
Lennon is desperate to add more creative flair during the transfer window and admits he will also attempt to recruit "robust" players after being left frustrated by a series of injury set-backs.
Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to city rivals Hearts ensured the Easter Road outfit ended 2018 languishing in eighth place, six points worse off than at the same stage a year ago.
Seven players missed the derby through injury in a game that compounded Lennon’s frustration over his side’s attacking woes.
The former Celtic manager led Hibs to their best top-flight points total last season before losing influential players John McGinn, Dylan McGeouch and Scott Allan and admits he is desperate to add reinforcements.
Lennon said: “If we don’t improve then we’ll finish in the bottom six. We lost some really good players last year and sold players for money and if we want to have an impact on the top six or even the top four then we need to replace those players.
“We need to be better, some of the players need to be better. We brought a lot of good players in who are underperforming consistently. We need to freshen things up.
“We still had enough get something out of the game [against Hearts] and I think we need a couple more players in, a bit more dynamism and a bit more creativity in the final third.”
Lennon, who could also lose experienced defender Efe Ambrose this month, has previously been critical of marksman Flo Kamberi, who has notched three goals since September, and admits his striking options are a concern.
He added: “Our centre-forwards aren’t playing well enough and it’s been a bugbear of mine for quite a while now and we need to look at that in January.
“We need to add more quality in the final third, we’ve had plenty of possession in games but we’re either not working hard enough to create the chances or not linking the play well enough and some are drifting a long and that’s not acceptable.
“It’s been an aspect of our play during the first half of the season that our strikers have not been firing and that’s need to be addressed. We’ll try and get better ones in, it’s as simple as that.
“The first two thirds of the pitch, the majority has been good – we’re not scoring enough goals.
"It’s easy to be critical of the strikers but it’s a team effort. We don’t react to a lot of things and we’re not physical enough in the final third or creative enough. Saturday was a prime example for all the play we had.
“I thought Flo was very good on Wednesday [against Rangers] but I thought he was off the pace against Hearts, we’ll leave it at that. I’m not going to call out Flo publicly, I’ve done that already and I got a reaction He is a young player still learning the game.”
Lennon, meanwhile, admits his injury woes are another source of major disappointment.
He added: “We need robust players as well because I’m fed up with the injuries; soft-tissue injuries, players breaking down, breaking down – and it’s almost every week that someone is crying off with an injury so I need more robustness as well.”
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