Callum Davidson has made his mind up on where his St Johnstone squad needs strengthened before the transfer window shuts in less than a month.
But he admitted that the budget he will be working with to do so is “tight”.
The Perth boss brought in Millwall duo Danny McNamara and Tanto Olaofe on loan early in pre-season and they were soon joined by veteran winger Craig Conway.
If he is going to advance from three new signings to four or five, Davidson will first have to free up some space with departures.
“We are working hard to get a couple of players in,” he said.
“The budget is tight and we have to work under the constraints we’ve got so one or two might be going out to create room.
“We have to maximise what we have.”
The unique nature of this stretched-out transfer window has given a new manager like Davidson all the time he could wish for to arrive at clear-cut conclusions on the desired make-up of his squad.
“It has been a good and bad window in that we’ve had a long time to assess what we have and what we need,” he said.
“And on the other side of that, it has been so long. So it’s had good and bad points.
“I have a clear idea of what we need, we have a lot of games coming up and we need to make sure there is enough cover in a lot of positions.
“We want to bring people in who can put the players who are starting games under pressure.
“I knew most of the players before I came in but it has given me a chance to look at everyone and make a proper assessment.
“Hopefully we can get a couple in.
“We have played well but we need to turn the performances into points.”
Three points out of a possible 12 from a run of games that Saints have largely dominated has been scant reward. Davidson isn’t scratching around for excuses, though.
“I am disappointed with the points tally from the last four games because we have played well in them,” said the Perth boss.
“But we haven’t taken the points for a reason so you have to look at yourself.
“We have to ask what we could have done better and work on that.
“We had a lot of the play but we gave Motherwell a chance to defend by conceding the early goal and that made it difficult for us.
“We have conceded the first goal six out of the seven games and that’s disappointing because you make it difficult for yourself.
“It’s really frustrating because I think in the main we have defended very well.
“If you look at the games recently, we have limited good teams to very few shots in our box – but we have still conceded the first goal.
“Against Aberdeen and Hibs it was in the last few minutes, against Motherwell it was in the first few – so it’s frustrating.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it, but we need to start getting in front in games because it makes such a big difference.
“Against Motherwell were not good enough or sharp enough in an attacking sense.”
It is yet to show in their chances converted statistics but Davidson has seen training ground work applied well in recent matches.
“We are looking at the games we’ve played and working on what we should be doing when we get into those good positions,” he said.
“I see signs of improvement but we have to keep going with that. It’s a work in progress.
“We are getting into good positions so once someone starts scoring a few goals it will turn.
“Once we can get in front in a game it changes the whole complexion of things.”
