TONY Mowbray admits his players could have few complaints if he was to make wholesale changes ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Nottingham Forest (3pm), as he ponders a switch to three at the back.

The Rovers head coach made six alterations, two of those enforced, for the visit of Barnsley last weekend, but saw his side put in their most disappointing performance since he took charge as they fell to a 2-0 defeat.

A doubt over Jason Steele’s fitness could see a change of goalkeeper at the City Ground, but the 10 outfield positions are very much up for grabs as Rovers look to bounce back from that defeat and keep alive their hopes of overturning a four point deficit to safety.

“My door is always open to come and talk to me, but at this moment not many would be coming and asking why they are not playing,” Mowbray said.

“When you’re an experienced football manager and been doing this a few years, you get to the point where you want to build relationships with your team, and they have to know that you’re honest, fair, and work hard.

“Ultimately when you’re picking a team you have to pick the team that’s the best for the football club in any game.

“When they’re resting and relaxing on days off, the manager is usually in watching videos and putting the hours in, studying the opposition, working out a game-plan and what you have to do is put the components together, the names of the players doesn’t really matter.

“You try and pick a team that is going to give you the best chance.”

A run of three consecutive defeats, and no win in seven, leaves Rovers with a huge job on their hands if they’re to remain a Championship club next season.

And Mowbray admits this is a time when the characters within a squad come to the fore.

He added: “I think that’s true of any football team at any stage.

“How they react to any defeat, the media attention, the questions that get asked, you’re always assessing footballers or individuals.

“The ones that want to stick their chests out want to train even harder and the ones who melt away, it’s part of football management.

“That’s why managers talk about recruiting the right characters, and when the chips are down people who actually grow and get stronger and get more in to the task in front of them.

“It’s a huge part of recruitment, obviously talent is a huge part and that’s why I’ve talked about every football team needing a balance.”

Rovers could switch to a three at the back system against Forest, a formation they worked on during the international break and used to good effect in the second half at Reading on April 4.

“You saw the impact the change of formation had on the game and every team should have a change of formation,” Mowbray said.

“It can throw the positional side of the game out of sync.

“We took the international break to work on a different way of playing so that if and when we needed to we could adapt and everyone knew their jobs within that shape.

“Will it be seen again? I would assume so.”