Norwich City's new boys Timm Klose and Steven Naismith are made of the right stuff for Alex Neil.

The Canaries confirmed the double signing earlier this week as City step up their bid to bolster Neil's squad for the Premier League survival scrap.

Klose won the German Cup and played in the Champions League with Wolfsburg while Naismith is a Scottish international but Neil wants the right characters as well as top quality for the struggle ahead.

'You have to be up for the fight, certainly the position we are in,' he said. 'You could say any team in the bottom half if you don't have guys who are passionate, who want to roll up their sleeves and fight for the cause and get stuck in then it will be difficult. You look at clubs like Chelsea and Swansea, who most would have not expected to be down there, and they are going to have to pick those type of characters as well as making sure they have enough quality. Sometimes in these situations quality is not enough, you need a bit of character, a bit of guts. We want to attract players with that.'

Klose is the second defensive addition after Ivo Pinto's move from Dinamo Zagreb. Pinto is likely to come into Neil's thoughts for this weekend's home test against Liverpool as the Scot looks to tighten up a backline which has failed to keep a clean sheet away from Carrow Road.

'It was only fair to Ivo after coming in from a different culture and a mid-season break to give him time to adjust,' he said. 'He needed a full week's training with the squad so this week will determine a lot. I don't look at the fact we haven't kept a clean sheet away. That doesn't mean anything to me really. We have more points that all the sides below us so we, yes, we needed to strengthen, the areas have been identified and hopefully we manage to do that in this window.

Neil is urging City to rise to the challenge against the five-time European Cup winners.

'We've picked points up against the top teams so that won't faze us,' said Neil. 'It is about performing as well as we can. We drew with Arsenal and Everton and beat Manchester United and for me our problem has been trying to find that consistency, because it is not easy to churn out consistently good performances.

'The problem we have got is we have been too inconsistent. We hit the heights and then we drop back down again. What we need is to find that similar level.'