Tony Mowbray says he will ‘analyse everything’ as he looks to cure Rovers’ issues infront of goal.
It follows a slight change to the formation in the defeat at Reading in a bid to get more attacking players on the pitch.
Despite that, Rovers went a seventh successive away match without scoring, and have now drawn a blank in 11 of their 15 Championship fixtures in 2022.
Rovers had almost exclusively been either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 during Mowbray’s time in charge until a switch to a back three in November coincided with an upturn in results that took them into the top six.
Despite an excellent defensive record, Rovers have struggled to score goals, and Mowbray opted to try and find a compromise at the weekend.
That meant that when attacking, Reda Khadra played as a winger and Darragh Lenihan as a right back, but a wing-back and central defender when without the ball.
That was in a bid to try and add another attacking player to the side, rather than using Joe Rankin-Costello as an ordinary wing-back, but still looking to keep the defensive solidity of Lenihan in the back three.
Mowbray also went for a more attacking option on the left, picking Ryan Giles at left back, and that brought about a bright start, Khadra in particularly showing he had the ability to beat his marker, Tom McIntyre, when running with the ball.
Yet the Brighton loanee was forced off at the midway point of the first half due to injury, with Giles then switching to the right as Harry Pickering was brought back on the left side of the defence.
Outlining Khadra's positioning, Mowbray explained: “I played him wide right, like a right-wing-back, with very little defensive responsibility.
“We tried an off-balance shape to try and get an extra attacking body on the pitch but done so to try and keep the same shape and give us the confidence that we can be strong and keep clean sheets, but with extra attacking bodies.
“I thought he (Khadra) looked sharp, he was driving in from that right and we’ll see what the scan shows.”
Defeat at Reading had threatened to see Rovers head into the international break outside of the play-off spots, but QPR being beaten Peterborough United on Sunday meant they hung on to sixth place.
But it leaves them with seven games remaining and the prospect of needing to win at least four of them to stay in the top six.
To do that they will need to find a ruthless edge infront of goal, edged out 1-0 by Swansea City, Sheffield United, Bristol City and now Reading within the last six weeks.
Yet Mowbray takes comfort from the number of chances his side are creating which are not too dissimilar to when they went through their purple patch.
He added: “We have still got a lot to play for.
“We have to find a way to win games, whether that’s down to a total formation change or a total personnel change, let’s wait and see.
“We’re now on a real countdown now, every game is a cup final.
“Are they mentally finding it tough? You find it tough to lose 1-0 which seems a pretty common occurrence. They’re tough to take and it’s just too often.
“I look at myself, is it something that we’re doing wrong? The data and the statistics suggest we’re having the same number of shots as we were, it’s not as if we’re not creating chances, and not having shots at the opposition goal, because we’re very much the same as we’ve been all year.
“Four shots on average a game, early on they were going in. We’re creating chances, not taking them and not scoring goals.”
That gives the manager belief that things will turn around, but the disparity of results when scoring first, and going behind, is something the team must reverse.
The comeback win over Derby County was only the fourth time this season Rovers have got something from a game when conceding first, and Mowbray told RoversTV: “When we go 1-0 down, I’m not sure the team believe they’re going to score.
“Yet we did everything in that last 15 minutes, played man for man at the back, pushed our full backs up, it just didn’t happen.
“I will analyse everything and what’s the next step?
“The chances are there, we’re creating the chances, they’re just not going in.
“As the coach, if you’re not creating the chances then you’re probably doing something wrong, playing your strikers too wide, not playing enough strikers, not getting enough players into the box, not playing behind the opposition enough, whatever it might be, all of that stuff we talk about and work on, practice yet we’ve come away without scoring.”
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