Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder insists the club will need to strengthen their squad in the January transfer window to ensure their Premier League survival.
The Blades remain in ninth place, despite a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle on Thursday, where Wilder criticised the VAR controversy leading to Jonjo Shelvey's winner.
Although they are doing better than many people predicted at the start of the season, Wilder admits the board and owners need to support him in January by bolstering their squad for the run-in.
He said: "There's always a short, medium and long-term plan for this football club. We're going through that process at the moment, we have to.
"It's important we cement our position in the Premier League, we cement our position in the table as it is now, and we'll only do that by investing in January."
"My job is to coach and manage the team and identify areas, identify targets.
"Obviously from the board's point of view, and the owner, is to make some funds available for me to get the most out of that, which I have done right the way through my tenure as manager of the football club."
Mousset and McGoldrick to come back in?
Wilder rested the in-form strike partnership of David McGoldrick and Lys Mousset against Newcastle - the latter has scored four goals in his last seven appearances - in favour of Billy Sharp and Oli McBurnie.
When asked if Mousset and McGoldrick will come back into the side for Sunday's trip to Norwich, Wilder replied: "We've got that option to put them back in - they've been outstanding.
"I thought the two boys at the top of the pitch on Thursday night were good as well, arguably that was Oli's best game. Better teams than us have struggled to break [Newcastle] down.
"It really was a difficult night to find any spaces and gaps, but I thought Oli and Billy Sharp were good without just adding that little bit at the end.
"We made a decision before that it was a big week and we had to rotate the strikers. Obviously Lys and David come right back into the thinking for Sunday afternoon."
'Norwich looking to kick-start season'
Norwich pipped the Blades to the Championship title last season, but the Norfolk club have struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League under Daniel Farke this campaign.
Ahead of their trip to Carrow Road on Sunday afternoon, Wilder believes Norwich will be looking to "kick-start" their season.
He said: "They've suffered quite badly with injuries and their best players not being available, so I don't think Daniel (Farke) can do anything about that. That's just a bit of luck at times.
"A lot of their key players have been injured and they've got a lot of young players as well. A little bit of momentum that you're all looking for that we've had and they haven't.
"We're still only 14 or 15 games into the season and there's still a lot of football to be played.
"I should imagine they'll be looking at our game and looking for that kick-start to go and pull-in a few of the clubs above them, us included, because of the nature of the league and how tight it is in that middle part of the table."