Roy Hodgson admitted that Crystal Palace are working on bringing a much-needed striker to Selhurst Park after their 1-0 defeat by Chelsea.

Ngolo Kante’s strike shortly after the interval gave Chelsea the victory in a game where Palace failed to register a shot until the 80th minute.

Following the defeat Hodgson expanded on Palace Chairman Steve Parish's comments that a deal for Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke is being prepared.

“If he's (Parish) mentioned it then it’s not a secret,” said Hodgson.

“He’ll provide the attacking threat a good attacking centre forward should provide.

“He’s a proven goal scorer through all the age groups with Chelsea and England, and if he comes here then he can see if he can transfer that in to Premier League football.

“He’s someone who has the profile and ability we are looking for, which we were lacking today.”

READ: Player ratings from Palace's 1-0 defeat by Chelsea

Palace started with Wilfried Zaha in a lone striker role before introducing the fit-again Connor Wickham on 70 minutes.

With just 33% possession and zero shots on target in 90 minutes, the stats suggest that Palace are in desperate need of re-enforcements.

Having worked with Solanke whilst with England, Hodgson believes the striker will be a good fit despite his lack of game time at Anfield.

“He’s been kept out of the team by some very strong players, and it’ll take some player to knock them off their perch, so it’s not a criticism or negative towards him (Solanke) that he’s not been able to do so.”

READ: Report: Palace 0 Chelsea 1 - poor end to 2018 for shot-shy Eagles

Asked whether his ‘negative’ approach was the wrong course of action in the defeat that leaves them 14th in the table, Hodgson quipped:

“If we wanted to get beat by four or five goals to nil, then yes.

“They were very, very good.

“This was a game where we weren’t at our best technically, they played better on the ball, very good in organisation and structure, so it was going to be a tight game if we could keep it tight, which is why it was 1-0 and why we didn’t lose it by a lot of goals.”

Palace travel to Wolves on Wednesday, possibly with a new striker.