DES Buckingham is happy with the midfield options at his disposal, and sees other areas of the pitch as a priority in the closing days of the January transfer window.

Oxford United have until 11pm on February 1 to finalise any remaining business, before the window slams shut.

So far this month, the U’s have signed four players, in goalkeeper Jamie Cumming, wingers Tyler Burey and Kyle Edwards, and striker Will Goodwin.

Head coach Buckingham has publicly spoken of his desire for another centre forward, and a right-sided attacker, while he is content with his midfield as it is.

Cameron Brannagan and Marcus McGuane are the regulars in United’s central midfield, with the likes of James Henry, Josh McEachran and Oisin Smyth in reserve, while Ruben Rodrigues has also played in the middle of the park when Buckingham has opted for a 4-3-3 system.

Asked whether he wants to add a midfielder to his squad, in particular one who can carry the ball and play box to box, Buckingham said: “We’ve got four or five good players in those positions at the moment. You can’t always in every window refresh every area of the pitch.

“Priority-wise for us right now, we know Marcus Browne and Kyle [Edwards] will come back at the end of March, but it’s about making sure we have what we need now.

“In the next four or five weeks, we need to arrive in those five games in a good position, to be able to welcome those two players back and have the kick we expect from both of them, and us as a team.

“So it’s about making sure we get those players now, to be able to do that.”

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Assessing his side’s transfer window so far, Buckingham said: “It’s been good business and like-for-like to an extent.

“We’ve had Jamie [Cumming] come in, off of James [Beadle], and Joe [Bennett] came in and filled the role that Greg [Leigh] was doing. We got Tyler Burey in as a kind of Millsy [Stan Mills] replacement.

“We’re continuing to chase a couple of other signings, and if we can get them in before the window, it will complement what we already have, and allow us to go on and hopefully do what we want towards the end of the season.”

He added: “There was a lot of work done before I got in, and it was about recognising and looking at what was already there, and looking at what we wanted to do, and if there were any differences between what Liam [Manning] and myself want to do.

“A lot of those players that were already on the list had been tracked for a period of time, some for long periods of time.

“The majority of them stayed, some changed because of the way we want to do things, but I’ve been happy with it so far.”