Nigel Adkins is refusing to “be a victim” as key players continue to be ruled out through injury.
The Tranmere Rovers boss is instead seeing the injury list as an opportunity for other players to come in and prove themselves.
Tranmere have been without a number of first team players this season including Declan Drysdale, Tom Davies, Luke Norris, Regan Hendry, Brad Walker and Saidou Khan.
Drysdale played a full 90 minutes in the 2-2 draw with Morecambe in midweek. Meanwhile, captain Davies is back in training but it could be too soon for Saturday’s game against Chesterfield.
Adkins said: “Brad’s taking a little bit longer than we would have liked for him to be back available, but the other three (Norris, Hendry and Khan)are going to be out for a couple of months.
“What it does do is that it provides an opportunity for other players to come into the field.
“Injuries happen. Don’t be a victim. We need to look after the welfare of our players.
“I’d love us to have a settled side, settled formation. We did that last season. It’s what we endeavour to do at the start of pre-season but there’s several reasons that things have to change and evolve.”
Goals have been hard to come by for the Rovers this season. They have only scored 12, making them the lowest scoring side in League Two. However, Adkins has reassured the fans that it’s all a process which his team is willing to work on to get right.
He said: “The scoreline is the most important thing. So, we’ve identified at the beginning that we need to score more goals and we are working towards it. We look at the process and we trust the process.
“So, a lot of stuff we do on the training ground, we’re working towards it. And then we look at the game, you know, we utilize a lot of data in a lot of different ways to see, are we improving on what we’re doing and are we getting closer to what we want to try and achieve?
“We’ve just got to put the ball in the ball in the back of the net to go and win games of football.”
Tranmere travel to Chesterfield this weekend who are also struggling to find the right formula. The Spireites have won only one game in their last four, and they have failed to score in their last two matches.
The two sides haven’t met since December 2012 in the second round of the FA Cup, which ended in a 2-1 loss for Tranmere at Prenton Park.
Adkins said that he is very much looking forward to seeing his opposite number and formr Wigan teammate Paul Cook on the touchline this weekend.
The Rovers boss said: “Cookie [Cook] has done great as a manager, obviously he got himself promoted at previous clubs and getting Chesterfield promotion where he’s been given time to go and do that, building things, playing good football.
“They play out from the back. They are good in possession of the ball to go and build the play. They’ve got very exciting players in the attacking half of the pitch. They’ve got a lot of movement and a lot of fluidity about themselves. So we’re under no illusions.”
