City are coming off the back of what Paul Lambert described as the best performance of his time in charge – but the manager says he has no compunction about changing his winning side to suit Monday's home game against Bristol City.

Lambert has done it before – Wes Hoolahan is perhaps the most high-profile player to have been stood down, but he is far from being alone. It was Henri Lansbury's turn at Leicester on Tuesday, when City came away with an excellent 3-2 victory, and while there are never any clues about which personnel will get the nod, Lambert sticks by his horses for courses philosophy.

'I've done it before and if I'm going to do it I will tell the lad beforehand, maybe the day before, what I am thinking,' he said. 'It is just man management I think to get the best out of them. I will tell them before so it's not a shock.

'But there have been times where I have left people out and I have told them. That's what is good about the lads; it is never easy to leave someone out when they are playing really well and you have got to remember I was a player once myself and I know what it feels like and it is disappointing so you try and put yourselves in their shoes at certain times

'You just try and hopefully they see you are doing it for the right reasons. But that is one thing I have always had here – when I've done it, the lads have been brilliant about it. Disappointed, yes, but they have been brilliant, and that's why they are getting results, because they seem very, very close.

'I've done the same with Wes, with Foxy (David Fox), with Zak (Whitbread). I've done it with Adam (Drury), but everyone has accepted it.'

There are a couple of knocks among the City squad, although Lambert has an extra couple of days for them to recover, while Whitbread and striker Aaron Wilbraham are still carrying the back injuries they took into the Leicester game.

'The two of them are still pretty sore at the minute so we will see how they are,' he said.

'Aaron was probably worse than Zak. But they are proper lads. That's the great thing about them – they want to try and do it and they came through the game and I thought the two of them were excellent.'

Leon Barnett and Chris Martin are still out with hamstring problems, but Simon Lappin was with the travelling party in midweek and is available for selection, three weeks after having his appendix removed.'