Nigel Pearson admits no player is undroppable in regards to Andi Weimann's form, but claims the forward won't benefit by having a spell on the substitute bench.
The 31-year-old set the bar high last season after firing 22 league goals and 10 assists to be crowned the club's Player of the Year. He immediately hit the ground running this campaign with four goals in his opening four matches but has yet to find the target in the last 10 games.
He also hasn't assisted in his last five matches with City's usual prolific forward line hitting a blank in their last two matches. Weimann's recent form, especially after the international break, has been a concern with just two shots and two key passes in his last five Championship games.
There are different factors that could be contributing to his recent performances. For example, he had just 10 days off over the summer having represented Austria in the Nations League.
More recently, he also had an injury scare on international duty last month when he was taken off in a defeat over France. He was then pictured with strapping to his left knee although was an unused substitute against Croatia just three days after.
From a City perspective, Kal Naismith's arrival this summer has added to Weimann's game. His ability to play through the lines and feed the forward had an impact towards the beginning of the season but teams may have also grown wise to the game plan by closing down the space and putting the defender under pressure.
Naismith has also missed the last game and a half with a calf injury and it's perhaps been a reason why Weimann hasn't been able to influence proceedings as much as he would have liked.
Pearson is expected to make changes to his starting XI following the drab 3-0 loss at Birmingham but admitted despite Weimann's lack of goal involvement, he is still offering other qualities on the pitch.
Speaking ahead of Preston, he said: "He's one of the players that I would say would benefit from playing to get back into form. He'll be one of those players even when he's not at his best, his work rate, his mentality and his positivity would remain very important factors for us as a team even when people are judging it on whether he's just scoring goals or whether he's effective technically.
"There are areas of reviewing performances which I may see differently to other people but that's not to say he's not droppable. Everybody has a threshold but certainly, when you are going through difficult spells it becomes increasingly important to have enough reliable people and I don't mean that in a detrimental way.
"It's just a case of getting the balance right for selection and as I say, there are going to be players who don't start tomorrow who are unlucky. It's one of the mechanisms we have in some areas of the team but not in others.
"What that can do in some ways is to create an imbalance of selection and if you look at our forwards, they're all chomping at the bit and whoever is left out will probably be disappointed and feel unlucky.
"There are other areas of the side in which needs-must and players may have to play through a bit of a dodgy spell, that's life.
"One of the important messages that I try to both believe in and work towards in terms of value is to be fair but fairness... you ask some of the players and they will feel they won't have had a fair chance whereas others probably get more chances."
Pearson has been honest in his reflection on the recent performances and is fully aware a majority of his players performed well under the levels expected of them on Saturday. He admitted interventions have been "quite severe" as City look to get back to winning ways on Wednesday but was keen to emphasise his side are still in a rebuilding process.
"We're still in the process of rebuilding and our rebuilding is going to take longer than we would all like it to take because of other factors," he added.
"If people think it's an excuse fine, but that's the reality of where we are. For somebody like myself who's managing the team, I have to try and remain as level as possible.
"That doesn't mean where there are interventions that need to be made and some of them are quite severe as players have been aware of. There are other times when we can ill afford to do that so there's no point moaning about anything.
"We're in the situation we're in. We've made progress but let ourselves down somewhat - certainly on Saturday in terms of levels of performance. What we need now is a collective response which helps us move forward again."
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