How Phil Parkinson stepped up his preparations for Sunderland's crucial January window this week

Phil Parkinson has been assessing his squad since arriving on Wearside last month and this week discussed where he feels they are lacking with head of recruitment Tony Coton.

Coton is in the process of having his scouting structures bolstered following the current owner’s recent investment deal with the FPP Sunderland group.

Executive Director Charlie Methven recently said that the new manager would be backed to make adjustments in the window.

“Most teams in January look to freshen the squad up, we’ll be looking to do that,” Parkinson said.

“We’ve had a meeting this week with Tony Coton and his scouting team, and we’ve spoken about every player in the squad, and what we feel we need at this moment, and where we think things stand in this moment.

“We’ve got to make this squad as strong as possible so that when we have a couple of injuries, as we have with Lynden Gooch and Charlie Wyke recently, we can cope with them and that’s the intention, that we have a real go at it and give everything we’ve got to get to where we need to be.”

A number of the club’s fringe players failed to impress in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester City U21s this week, though Parkinson conceded that the side he named did not necessarily help them state their case in the game.

He will use the upcoming clash with Scunthorpe United to further assess his options, as well as the welcome break that follows that game.

“Like I said after the game, in our desire to give people an opportunity, the balance of the team [against Leicester] was probably not what we would have liked,” he said.

“Obviously the players can still do better within that, but we needed to look at players.

“We need to know by the time we get to January exactly what we’ve got and exactly who we can count on when the games come thick and fast in the second part of the season.”