Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton knows they will have to freshen the squad in the January transfer window but wants the current players to start realising their potential.

The O’s have a huge chunk of their squad out of contract at the end of the season and the boss knows they must start considering who they want to stay or who might be better off looking elsewhere.

They currently sit 12th in League Two after slipping out of the play-off places but Embleton is determined to make the current crop of players aware they should be doing better.

During the festive period they travel away to Cambridge United on Boxing Day (Saturday) before hosting Southend United on Tuesday, December 29.

“I think there will be some freshening up of the squad, and a big part of the situation we were in after lockdown was there was a lot made about players who were in contract and we had a settled squad,” Embleton said.

“There are people that are not in the team, people not playing at the moment, and people that are out of contract at the end of the season that need to think about their futures.

“We can do something really special this year. We’re not far away from pushing and getting in and around the play-offs, so let’s not look back at that and feel we’ve let ourselves down. And when I say we I say me as I know people will point the finger at me.

“As a group we should be doing more, we let ourselves down, we should be winning more games of football.

“People are going to be out of contract in the summer and some people will be looking at their situations in January.”

The boss is hoping striker Conor Wilkinson will be fit for the clashes over the festive period as he assesses his squad heading into the window.

“I don’t think it’s too severe, my wonder was that Conor missed most of Christmas last year with a calf injury. He was willing to come in and see how he felt, but we felt if he did and made it worse he could be missing for a long period of time.

“Collectively the physios, Conor and us accepted that we might lose him in the hope that we get him for the next four or five games fitter.

“We hope that we managed it in the right way.”