DAVID Hopkin is drawing up his battle plans for what he hopes will be a "window of opportunity" for City in January.

The head coach has identified the areas in the squad he needs to strengthen – and is already compiling a list of targets for when he gets the chance in the new year.

Hopkin took the Valley Parade helm just days after the last transfer window had shut and has so far added free agent Jim O’Brien.

He has no plans to bring in any more players currently without a club but is sizing up moves for January.

Hopkin said: “Over the first couple of weeks I was here, I knew what I wanted and what was missing.

“Sometimes as a coach you know how you want to play but you have to be patient. You go to January if funds are available and I’m sure they will be.

“These are things I’ve got to put to back of my mind. There are certain players I would like but it’s whether they are available.

“Whether January becomes a window of opportunity, depends who wants to come and who is prepared to let players go.”

As Hopkin plots a way to steer City out of League One’s bottom four, he intends to be prepared for the next transfer window. But he admits it is a challenging time to do business.

“January is a strange month,” he added. “It’s not easy to get players in and sometimes you might get players who aren’t playing at your own club who might want to move on.

“I don’t know how people are going to feel in January. There might be two or three not playing who might want to move and you’ll have to replace them.

“Any head coach or manager is always planning. You’re speaking to people and laying foundations.

“You don’t just want to scramble about in January thinking who am I going to get.

“You’ve got to be planning now and making sure that if somebody does become available, you’ve already had a bit of interest in him.”

Hopkin will discuss potential targets with chairman Edin Rahic – not just for this season but also some who may be available in the summer.

He said: “We’ll sit down with Edin and make sure that we’ve got targets who we think we can get.

“You don’t always get what you want and may have to go down to your second or third choice. But that’s just the way football is.

“Nobody in our league’s going to give us anybody.

“You’re looking who you can maybe speak to for getting loans in and players from different leagues.

“These are the type of things you need to be working on now and we are doing that.

“You’ve just got to make sure that anybody who comes in must make us better as a club. They have to improve the first-team squad.”

City’s injury crisis is starting to ease with the return of Josh Wright and Alex Jones. But Sean Scannell starts his three-game ban at Accrington tomorrow as numbers remain tight for Hopkin.

He said: “I knew what I was coming into. I knew the window was closed but I never envisaged having so many injuries.

“These things play a part but we are slowly getting there.

“You speak to most managers after games now and you’ll probably hear them saying that Bradford City is the hardest game they’ve had. That’s the mentality we need to keep going.”