BARNSLEY head coach Daniel Stendel has confirmed that the club remain on the look-out for a striker in the free agent market.

With no depth behind loan forward Makenzie Kirk and recent signing Ben Hamed Touré—who is still assimilating into English football following his move from France and has no EFL experience—bringing in a frontman with pedigree is assuming a fair degree of importance.

Nothing is currently close, that said.

On the search, Stendel, who confirmed that Touré could be involved for the first time at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, said: "I think it is not a secret that we are still looking for a goal-scorer. But again, it is really difficult to find one. A free agent and (someone) ready to play.

Barnsley head coach Daniel Stendel. Photo: Tony Johnson.

placeholder image — Barnsley head coach Daniel Stendel. Photo: Tony Johnson.

"But it doesn't matter, we are looking for a striker. When one is there and it is a good opportunity to bring him in the club, we can do it.

"But we (currently) play and train with the squad we have.

"We need the right quality and characters. The norm is that players who are free at the moment free have some history of maybe injuries.

"We have to decide if it's a bigger chance that they can improve our squad and help, then we look for the negative sides."

FC Annacy striker Ben Hamed Toure, who has joined Barnsley. Picture courtesy of BFC.

One school of thought suggests that recruiting an experienced centre-half option would also not go amiss, but Stendel says that seniority in terms of games is not his primary concern in that department.

The Reds chief, happy enough with his current options, added: "I know I expected some different things from our defenders than maybe a lot of players who played in the last time here (Stendel's first spell).

"Experience means they can play on this level. It means also quality.

"I like quality and experience. But for me, it's also important that they're open-minded to play what we want to play and believe that they can play that.

"This is, for me, more important that having a player with 200 appearances at League One level. We need the right player and the quality then doesn't matter if he's old, young, whatever."

Stendel says he is 'really positive' about the rehabilitation of injured trio Vimal Yoganathan, Cieran Slicker and Isaac Smith - and has suggested that they could be back in the fray next month.

All three are yet to feature this term after picking up injuries in pre-season.