STEVE Kean believes Blackburn Rovers have the strength in depth to challenge on more than one front this season – as he hands his squad players the chance to shine.

The Rovers boss has suggested the likes of Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu and Nuno Gomes will be rested for this evening’s Capital One Cup second round tie at MK Dons, but insists he has the players to progress in the competition.

He said: “It is a time where we have to be careful with the lads who have played most of the three games. They have played lots and lots of minutes and maybe we will have to rest them.

“What we have shown is, if we have to change it around, we have lots of quality. We have quality sitting on the bench and we will utilise the whole squad and I believe we have enough to get through to the next round.

“Danny Murphy has played a lot of minutes, so we could take the opportunity to rest him. We have to utilise the squad. There are a lot of players who have played three games in a week and they have to rest.

“You look at the bench though and you see players who played in the league above in the Premier League and haven’t featured yet. We have players we can put out and win a game.”

With players like Ruben Rochina, Simon Vukcevic, Paulo Jorge, Fabio Nunes and Mauro Formica pushing for a start this evening, Kean believes Rovers’ squad is looking strong.

He said: “There won't be too many better centre back partnerships in the league. I would doubt there would be any better than Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu in centre midfield.

“When we look through the rest of the squad we can rotate players around with experience and quality. The young ones we have brought in have got such ability.

“We have got a great squad. We have been good in front of goal and I think there is more to come. I think we can create more chances.

“We have been working a lot defensively, trying to minimise the waves of attack we get at us. We need to improve on last year’s goals we conceded and we are looking good. We are looking solid and we are looking clinical.”