Crystal Palace boss Hodgson: It’s clear we need to sign attacking players – this is a really bad spell

Roy Hodgson has reiterated Crystal Palace’s need to sign attacking players in the next transfer window as their Premier League slump continued at Wolves.

The Eagles lost a seventh top-flight fixture in succession.

Palace had returned to action with a 2-0 victory at Bournemouth on June 20 but have not taken a point since.

In six of their seven reverses they have failed to score.

Hodgson told BT Sport: “It’s a really bad spell. The coronavirus lockdown has certainly not done us any good.

“In the first half we were pretty much in control of the game but conceded an unfortunate goal just before half-time. Up until that time we had kept Wolves very quiet.

“They came out stronger in the second half but we were still in the game. And then a very, very good second goal makes life difficult for us because we’re having problems scoring goals – there’s been no doubt about that.

“At 2-0 you’re looking for two goals to get you a result against a well-organised and strong team like Wolves that was never going to be easy.

“We kept going. I really did think the players kept going. We lost Sakho – to lose three out of four centre-backs in your team is not ideal. So I can’t criticise the team at all for their efforts and we just have to accept this is a really bad period for us and we’re going to try and keep going.

Only rock bottom Norwich City (26) have scored fewer goals than Palace (30).

“We’ve been aware for a long time now that we need to do something,” said Hodgson.

“We’ve been a bit unlucky because Cenk Tosun came and he was going to help us, we thought, but then he got injured very early on. That put us another forward down. We lost Benteke to the sending off at Aston Villa, so we’re having to play a different formation with two different players.

“But there is no doubt if we’re going to do better – and we will do better and want to do better – we’ve got to solve that problem. It means we’ve got to look in the market and try and make certain we improve our possibilities in the striking area.”