New Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie has been casting his eye over some potential signings in the UK this winter.

The Scottish native returned to his homeland to take in some Scottish Premier League games as well as some English Premier League and Championship fixtures over the Christmas/New Year period but refrained from naming names of those he is looking at closely.

"We're looking at defensive positions and defensive midfield-type players," Rennie told MLSsoccer.com.

"Guys who can win the ball back, players who are athletic and aggressive, tall and strong kind of players - we need a couple more of them. We've got some good creativity and good quality going forward, but we definitely need to work on getting hard to beat and getting hard to play against."

And Rennie said that the recruiting process was ongoing as the Whitecaps get prepared to improve on their dismal 2011 in the next MLS season.

"When you work on recruitment, it's one step forward, two steps back sometimes, or two steps forward, one step back," Rennie added.

"But I feel like we're making really good progress on identifying the type of players we want to get. I think by the time preseason comes around, we'll be in a much stronger position than we were at the end of last season."

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