Morecambe boss aims to strengthen his squad before Doncaster Rovers' visit

The January transfer window opens on Saturday, 24 hours before the Shrimps begin their 2022 fixtures against League One’s bottom club.

Both sides are in dire need of the points with Morecambe having won once and lost nine of their last 13 league matches.

That run has seen them drop into the relegation places with the manager looking to freshen up his options as soon as possible, having signed 19 players over the summer.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Robinson said: “I spoke to Dave Artell (Crewe Alexandra manager) last night and we’re all after the same players.

“We’re a small club with a small budget and we aren’t anyone’s first choice, so we have to be clever with what we do.

“We have to take gambles like we did in the summer: some will work and some won’t but we know what we need.

“We need better defenders. Anthony O’Connor was the only recognised centre-back (against Crewe), so we need to improve in that area.

“I have to try and bring players in and I’m trying desperately to bring them in before the game on Sunday.

“We’re doing a lot of work and we’re making a lot of phone calls so, hopefully, a couple of those phone calls pay off.”

Another dimension to the transfer window is clubs’ willingness to use vaccination status as a determining factor in signing players.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and his Aston Villa counterpart, Steven Gerrard, have both said they would have concerns over bringing in unvaccinated players.

Morecambe’s players are all double vaccinated though, as Robinson had admitted earlier this week, not all of them have elected to have the booster.

When asked this morning if he would take a player’s vaccinated status into account when it comes to signing them, Robinson said: “In an ideal world, we would have them all vaccinated.

“We don’t live in an ideal world, we have to take the best players available.

“It would make life easier, I make no bones about that, especially as we’re at a stage where we need to get more quality in the building.”

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