Burnley and Norwich City share exact same transfer dilemma | OneFootball

Both the Clarets and the Canaries head towards the January transfer window with a glaring need to strengthen in a certain area of the pitch.

Burnley and Norwich City have both endured mixed starts to their respective Championship campaigns, as the Clarets and the Canaries both harbour aspirations of winning promotion to the Premier League this season.

Scott Parker's first 15 league games in charge of Burnley has been quite the rollercoaster ride already, as his side have been tough to beat having only lost twice in the Championship so far this season, but they have struggled to turn draws into wins.

This has seen the Clarets win seven and draw six of their opening 15, leaving them in fourth place as the second tier pauses for the November international break.

As for Johannes Hoff Thorup's Norwich, they too have flipped and flopped between results, as a slow start was followed by a strong September-early October, but the Canaries have since slipped alarmingly down the table in recent weeks.

Winless in their last six, 14th in the Championship and suffering three consecutive defeats on the bounce has understandably seen panic begin to set in at Carrow Road.

However, with the January transfer window on the horizon, both clubs share the same glaring need in their respective squads that they must address in the winter window...

Norwich must bring a striker in during January

Scoring goals up to now hasn't been a major issue for Norwich, with their 23 goals scored being one of the highest in the division so far this term.

Crucially, though, 11 of those have come from winger Borja Sainz, and as brilliant as he's been for the Canaries, they cannot afford to become over-reliant on the Spaniard.

If and when teams find a way to blunt his attacking threat, or should he suffer an injury that sidelines him for an extended period, Norwich's next highest goalscorer is Josh Sargent with four.

That should come as a major concern for a number of reasons.

It highlights a lack of goalscorers in Hoff Thorup's team, and as for Sargent, he hasn't played a single minute since their 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough on 27 October because of a groin injury which will sideline him until the new year at the earliest.

In the three games since Sargent last played, Norwich have lost all three to an aggregate score of 6-1. Neither Ante Crnac nor Emliano Marcondes are centre-forwards by trade, and that's been evident across those three fixtures.

Inserting Sargent straight back into the starting XI and asking him to play 90 minutes immediately after returning from injury would be a risk given the nature of his injury, and the possibility for complications arising or further setbacks in relation to that can't be ruled out either.

As such, the Canaries should make the signing of another striker a major priority in the winter window, in order to give themselves the best chance of scoring enough goals to make a real promotion push in the second half of the campaign.

Burnley also in desperate need of a centre-forward

It's fair to say that Burnley's return to the Championship hasn't gone totally to plan as of yet, as whilst Parker's side still sit just four points off first-placed Sunderland, the Clarets are yet to really flex their muscles like many thought they would.

A big reason for that has been the lack of goals. Through the first 15 games, central midfielder Josh Brownhill is the club's top scorer with five, with Luca Koleosho's two being the next best return from a Burnley player so far.

Parker's main striking options are Lyle Foster, Zian Flemming and Jay Rodriguez, all of whom have just one league goal each so far this season.

To put that even further into perspective, that's the same number of league goals that Wilson Odobert, Zeki Amdouni, Vitinho, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Dara O'Shea have scored for Burnley this season, all of whom left Turf Moor in August.

As evidenced by the table above, this lack of cutting edge in attack has been made even more frustrating given how impressive they've been in defence. Their 0.4 goals conceded per game is the lowest number in the Championship so far this term.

That would suggest that the addition of a quality centre-forward in January might just be the missing piece in the promotion puzzle for the Clarets, and as such, they should make that their number one priority in the new year.