Roy Hodgson has sent a stern warning to the Crystal Palace board regarding this month's transfer window.
The Eagles recent resurgence has lifted them out of the relegation zone.
But Hodgson says his squad needs at least four additions to ensure they're not struggling towards the end of the season.
"Our realistic thoughts after I'd been at the club a couple of weeks was that it was four [players]. That's what we were hoping for. We thought we needed that just to make as well balanced and as well covered as we needed it to be," he said.
"So the reason I said it could go higher than that is quite simply because we have lost certainly two players for the reason of the season.
"Jeffrey Schlupp is likely to be out for quite a while and we are uncertain at the moment as to how long Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be out for. So there are four players there that I have really counted on to be part of our first XI that we have lost.
"If we can get more than four players it would be good for us but if we don't get the four players then our squad is going to be short of numbers apart from anything else and weak in certain areas where we don't have the cover and the competition for places that we would like."