Roy Hodgson has admitted that Crystal Palace fell short in the transfer window - and he wants the club’s hierarchy to think about “what the best way forward is”.

Hodgson, the 72-year-old Palace manager, is out of contract in the summer with an extension to the deal yet to be finalised.

The club made just one January signing, which was striker Cenk Tosun on loan from Everton, but he was unavailable for Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat against Sheffield United - while Palace forward Connor Wickham was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday.

Hodgson said: “I think we know, as a football club, that we need to make more inroads into improving our squad and rejuvenating our squad and bringing in some fresh faces, because an awful lot of faces that I still work with every day were here when I came to the club and I have inherited them. So everyone is on the same page as far as that’s concerned.

“I think now [chairman] Steve Parish, [sporting director] Doug Freedman, the American owners, they are going to have to do a lot of thinking, alongside myself and the coaching staff, as to what the best way forward is and, in the next transfer window, what we are going to be able to do to try to ensure that this team can get stronger and to try to ensure that, if we stay up this year — and we’ve still got a lot to do, to do that — then we go into the next year with a bit more power, if you like, and a bit more grease to our elbow.”

A deal for West Brom full-back Nathan Ferguson fell through after a medical - and Hodgson revealed that the club were interested in loaning in forward Jarrod Bowen from Hull City rather than buying him, which West Ham eventually did.

Speaking generally about the window, Hodgson said: “Losing Nathan to the complication through his medical means we have got Tosun, which is less than what we would have liked.”

Discussing Bowen, the former England manager said: “There was a discussion several weeks - or at least ten days - before the transfer window that Hull might be considering loaning him for a period of time with an option to buy and that interested us. But there was never any question that we would go in and buy him outright.

“So, when West Ham went in and bought him outright, that’s something they are entitled to do. But it’s not something that we’d actually considered doing.”

Palace managed to keep Wilfried Zaha but Hodgson argued that he did not fear the player was about to go.

The Palace manager explained: “It would be very easy to say that’s a positive. But I’ve not been that worried in this transfer window that we’ve been beleaguered by people wanting to take him. I’ve not had every day the fear that someone’s in there, making offer after offer, but of course until that bell rings, I suppose, something could always happen.”

Hodgson was frustrated by watching his Palace team lose against Sheffield United, with goalkeeper Vicente Guaita dropping the ball in from an Oliver Norwood corner.