Neil Adams is prepared to be ruthless in his bid to get Norwich City's Championship promotion bid upwardly mobile again.

The Canaries' 4-0 hammering at Middlesbrough in midweek prompted a fresh debate over the balance of City's backline as Norwich were sliced open at will on Teesside.

Adams is more concerned about cutting out the individual errors than changing personnel, with Russell Martin continuing to partner Michael Turner in central defence and fellow Scottish international Steven Whittaker at right-back.

'There might be a focus on one area of the team but that applies to every position,' said Adams. 'Russ might not have had his best game on Tuesday, without a doubt, but the games before, particularly Bolton, I felt he was very good. He would be the first to hold his hands up and admit he didn't put in his best performance, but that is just one option for us.

'No-one is guaranteed a place, whether they have a favoured position or not, and that includes Russ. He knows that himself. We will pick the team we feel can cope with whatever Nottingham Forest have to throw at us on Saturday to win the match. There are defeats and then there is what happened on Tuesday, which wasn't good. It does open the door for possible changes and we certainly have a good enough squad to do that.

'The players are well aware of the situation and if we don't produce then they can have no comebacks.'

City's inability to re-capture their winning consistency from the opening months of the league season has not been helped by a series of self-inflicted blows.

'It is frustrating as a manager and doubly so when you look at the Bolton or Fulham games and those individual mistakes result in a goal,' he said. 'When you look back and it's the only shot or one of very few opportunities for the opposition that is hard to take.

'On Tuesday one individual mistake did not cost us the points because Middlesbrough scored four goals. We have to be far better than that, but prior to that game it was costing us points.'