Gary Rowett has to address two Oxford United positions in the transfer window ASAP | OneFootball

Oxford United need players in two key areas, if they want to become a regular Championship team

After securing Championship football for next season, Oxford United can now focus on recruitment for 2025/26.

Gary Rowett's side have managed to defy the odds, and guarantee themselves a spot in the second tier of English football before the final game of the season.

Many people had Oxford as favourites to go straight back down to League One, but thanks mainly to a tremendous home record, the U's will be back next season, looking to make progress from this campaign.

That progress starts now, with the backroom staff already planning for the transfer window.

Rowett and his recruitment team will have to identify key positions to invest the most effort and money into improving. And there's one in particular that stands out from the rest.

Oxford United need to find a new striker

This may sound obvious, and the majority of clubs in the country will be saying the same thing, but the matter still stands: United need to invest in a new number nine.

The U's have found goals hard to come by this season, and are not creating too many chances from open play.

Oxford's success in recent weeks and months has been from set pieces. Nine of the last 10 goals Oxford have scored have been from dead-ball situations, three of them coming from central defender Michał Helik.

United's number nine, Mark Harris, has found goals hard to come by in his return to the Championship. The Welsh international found the back of the net six times this season, with four of them coming in each of the first four games of the season.

That means, since his impressive start to the campaign, the 26-year-old has scored two goals in 41 league games, not exactly the return he would've been hoping for.

In Harris' defence, Oxford's lack of chances created from open play would make it hard for any striker to score goals consistently, and when you look at his personal xG, it doesn't suggest he's missing lots of chances, more that he's not getting many chances.

According to Fotmob, the striker's personal xG across the whole season is only 7.28, compared to his actual goal return of six.

Chances are hard to come by in the Championship, and when you don't create that many, it becomes even more important to take them when they come. Oxford rank as a bottom-three side in when it comes to xG, big chances created and touches in the opposition penalty area, so whilst you could argue some creativity is needed, it's important that Rowett's striker is as clinical as possible to make those few chances count.

Finding a striker that will score goals is the hardest thing to do as a club. It's the most sought-after and expensive position on the pitch. The owners at Oxford will need to invest heavily if they want to bring in a striker who is going to score regular goals. It will likely be a club-record fee, currently set at around £1.5 million from when Ole Romeny signed in January.

But that's the reality of the Championship. Other teams are able to afford squads worth six or seven times the value of a side like Oxford. And in order to compete, recruitment needs to be smarter, and the investment needs to be bigger.

More physicality is needed in midfield

Oxford's January transfer recruitment has so far proved to be a lot more effective than the summer transfer window. One of the main reasons for that has been the loan signing of Alex Matos from Premier League giants Chelsea.

The youngster is a combative and energetic midfielder who thrives when it comes to breaking up play and winning the ball high up the field. His performances for Oxford at times have suggested he could be playing for a side better than Oxford, but it shows exactly the sort of player Oxford need in midfield alongside that aforementioned creativity.

Cameron Brannagan and Will Vaulks are the two holding midfielders that Rowett picks if everyone is fit. And while both play important roles in the side, neither one of them possesses real speed and strength. In certain games, United have had to sacrifice a creative midfielder so that Matos can make up for the attributes the other two lack.

This has a knock-on effect further up the field, with Oxford's creativity on the ball limited without that attacking midfielder to supply the forward line.

If United could somehow sell Matos on the idea of leaving Chelsea for Oxford, much like they did for goalkeeper Jamie Cumming last summer, it would be a huge boost for the team.

The summer ahead is a big one for Oxford. This is the time for them to push forward and build on the work done this season. A second season in the Championship will unlock a new level of player they perhaps did not have access to 12 months ago.

Manager Rowett will have his own idea of how he wants his side to look like next season. Speaking to the Oxford Mail, the 51-year-old suggested that the team may have a different look and style to what we've seen this season: "When we first came in, it became apparent very quickly to me that we had to find a different way to win.

"It didn’t need to be perfect. It needed to be effective and efficient, and I think long-term, of course, we want a lot more than that.

"Given the opportunity, we’ll be able to build something a lot different, but what I would say is in this division, sometimes you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and you’ve got to dig in."

Regardless of where the transfer window takes them, financial backing from the owners will be a huge part of that. It will also be a window where tough decisions have to be made about the future of certain players.

It will be interesting to see who stays, and who doesn't make the cut as new players - hopefully in the midfield and attack - filter through the door.