Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has admitted that he needs to increase the size of his squad and is planning to do so in January.

Villa are stretched in certain areas of the squad despite Lambert bringing in seven new players in the summer after the departure of several experienced players.

The club have four centre backs currently on the injured list, with Richard Dunne, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker and Chris Herd all out of action at the moment.

“The squad needs to get bigger as well. That is important as well. That's normal,” the Scotsman told the Independent.

“Everyone has to have competition for places. That is vital.

“It is like the centre-half situation. We lose Ciaran and Nathan and have to put Matt (Lowton) or Chris (Herd) back there.

“It shows you are short in certain areas and you have to improve the squad which we will try to do.”

Despite only winning one game so far this season the former Norwich manager is convinced the club are moving in the right direction in the Premier League.

“This was never going to happen overnight. A lot of people just expected us to come in and see a real change in fortunes," Lambert added.

“There is certainly progress, you can see that, but you want to keep going until you think, we're there.”

American owner Randy Learner is selling his stake in NFL side the Cleveland Browns which could see the chequebook opening in order to turn around the fortunes of the struggling Midlands outfit.

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