The data is giving Tony Mowbray reason to be positive and why he hasn’t insisted on an overhaul of their approach.
Rovers have scored only once in their last eight games, and three times in 2022, despite previously been among the Championship’s most prolific sides.
They failed to score in only three of their opening 24 games, but then nine in their next 12 as the goals have dried up.
Getting more players into the box is one area identified as needing to improve, but otherwise Mowbray feels little has needed to change other than the taking of the chances that have come their way.
“Looking at the data, we’re actually not far away from the number of chances we create from where we have been all season,” he explained.
“The goals we’ve scored has dramatically dropped off in the last 10 games, but the chances we’ve been creating are basically the same as when we scored 21 goals in the first 14 games and then 20 in the next 12.
“We’ve scored one in the last eight, but the data going alongside that is that we’re still creating the same number of chances and still having the same number of shots, it’s just the players on the pitch aren’t putting them in the net as regularly as the players that were on the pitch.
“We just have to keep working at it and it would be more of a concern, and we would have changed something more dramatically, if we weren’t having the same number of shots or the same number of changes.”
The positive has been their defensive record, with 15 clean sheets the joint-best in the division.
That is why Mowbray has been reluctant to move away from his three-man defence, but says that has been under consideration in a bid to bring success at the top end of the pitch.
He added: “Our defensive record has been good, the dilemma as I say to the group, is when do you sacrifice a defender and possibly a clean sheet to put another striker on the pitch to try and score a goal?
“But will that somersault and you can then start conceding goals but are still struggling to score goals and we end up losing games, because you’re taking away your defensive structure?
“We’re trying to get a better version of what we’re doing and obviously within the course of the 90 minutes you can change the structure of your team if you have the personnel to do it.
“We have pushed Lenihan to right back and taken off the right wing-back and gone back to a back four at times if we’re chasing a game.
“Darragh can be a threat if he pushes himself forward into the box at the back post and we have to work on getting the players into the box.
“We work on all of those things, different formations and shapes.
“We’re trying to release Rothwell into the box more in the formation we play because it’s not always easy to get enough men in the box, particularly if you’re playing a false nine, but we’re working on all of those things every day.”
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