ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman is maintaining belief in his side that they can “arrest the slump”, but admits he does not know the right combination to get them back on track.

The Reds boss has tinkered with his side on their recent losing streak, which stretched to five games with a 1-0 defeat at Plymouth on Saturday.

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Ahead of tonight’s crunch clash with Oxford United, Coleman is backing his players for an upturn in form.

He hopes it will be as simple as “flicking a switch”. But he concedes part of the problem is uncertainty surrounding his best XI.

“People think that is a criticism of a manager sometimes, not knowing what your best team is, and it’s not. I’ve probably got an idea who my best players are but if you know your best team is from day one you haven’t got a good squad,” said Coleman.

“I’ve never tried to think like that.

“I’ve got an idea of the players who are in form at the moment are, but you should never take it as a criticism if you don’t know what your best team is, because sometimes that can be a strength.

“I’m sure a lot of our fans will have an idea of what their favourite team is or what their best team would be.

“I don’t think any of the players know what the best fit is at the moment so it’s important that we keep exploring it.

“That’s not just making changes for changes sake; we have to formulate a reason for why we are doing it and validate that with the players. The players have to realise that if they aren’t picked one day they might be the next. There’s no personality involved.”

Coleman insisted players would be picked on merit, not favouritism.

“Since Paul Mullin left I haven’t had a favourite player!” he smiled.

“It’s all about trying to win a game. It would be churlish of us to just pick people because we’re more fond of them than other people. The bottom line is we need results.

“Whoever gets trusted with the job, we are expecting big things from them.”

Coleman was expecting big things of this season – eyeing the top seven in September on his return to the Stanley hotseat. Three wins on the spin gave him cause for optimism in their pursuit of the play-offs, but with only one League Two win in eight they are now looking over their shoulder at the other end.

“We’ve got to arrest this slump. We’ve got to find a way to do it,” he said. “We’re very much like an engine that’s misfiring at the moment.

“We’ve got the components there to be a good side and we’ve proved that time and time again this season but we’re in this rut, which is getting to be more than a rut now, and no matter what we do things are conspiring against us – be it decisions, mistakes or our own decision-making it keeps happening.

“The only way you get round that is by working even harder. We haven’t had any luck in the last four or five weeks but if you go to that often quoted phrase, the harder you work the luckier you get. That’s got to be our mantra.

“Sometimes you’ll get a win or a goal out of nowhere. That’s probably the kick start that we need. In order to do that you have to get yourself into the right areas and get yourselves playing the right way.

“Our game is based on, not so much all-out attack but certainly passion and pressing and very much on the front foot. When we do that at home I think that most teams don’t like coming here. We showed that in great parts against Bury. We didn’t really show it against Northampton but a lot of events conspired against us against Northampton so you can draw a line under that.

“In the main our home form has been quite good and we have to hope that we can get back to that.”

He added: “We’ve got to make it our day and the only way you do that is by believing what you are doing and believe in each other and that we have a squad, we are united and are all in this together.”

“You could see the spirit on Saturday. They kept going right til the end and hopefully the hard work will pay off with a result tonight.”