Reading have had an extremely good start to life under new manager Jaap Stam and currently find themselves flying high in fourth place in the Sky Bet Championship, after picking up eight wins from the opening sixteen league games.

The former Ajax and Manchester United centre half, Stam has brought a brilliant possession based style of football to the Madejski Stadium, and has seen his side reap the rewards of it so far this season.

Optimism is certainly flowing around the Madjeski Stadium at the moment and many fans are now confident of achieving a play-off spot this season after the club's terrific start.

However, if they are to keep up their strong form they may need to strengthen in the January transfer window.

This article is going to take a look at TWO players that Jaap Stam could look to bring in during January to take the club to the next level...

 

Kyle Lafferty

Experienced 29-year-old frontman Kyle Lafferty is someone who could bang in the goals to keep Reading in the hunt for a play-off spot, and is certainly an addition to the squad that would take them to the next level.

Lafferty is out of favour at Norwich at the moment and will be desperate to escape the club, and set his sights firmly on playing regular football once again.

He did however come off the bench to score in Norwich's recent 3-2 defeat at the hands of Leeds United, and it remains to be seen whether he could worm his way back into the first team fold at Carrow Road.

He has been capped 53 times by the Northern Ireland national team and scored 19 times in the process.

Bakary Sako

One player who could be available this January who would 100% take Reading to the next level is Crystal Palace winger Bakary Sako.

Sako was in and out of the first team for The Eagles last year and made a total of 23 appearances throughout his first season with the club, netting twice in the process.

However, the 28-year-old has been plagued with injury and has found it very difficult to break into the first team this season and has been limited to just the one appearance.

The Mali international is a powerful wideman who is very direct in his approach, he is quick, strong and has a wicked long shot in his arsenal.

He is no stranger to the Championship having spent two seasons in England's second tier with Wolverhampton Wanderers and throughout them two campaigns he made a combined total of 78 appearances, scoring 24 times in the process.

However, Palace aren't blessed with the largest squad and it could be argued that they are lacking strength in depth in the wide areas, meaning Palace manager Alan Pardew may be keen to keep hold of the former Saint Etienne man.