Blackburn Rovers skipper Ryan Nelsen would not want to be in Paul Ince’s shoes right now.

But that’s not because of his manager’s increasing frustration about transfer speculation surrounding the club, or even because Ince continues to have to fend off questions from the national media about his coaching badges.

It’s because each week the boss has to survey a range of different options and pick only 11 players.

It may not quite be rotation on the Rafa Benitez scale, but predicting the Rovers starting line-up each week has become one of the world’s hardest puzzles.

Some of the six changes made against Bolton last Saturday were definite surprises to those outside the confines of Ewood Park, but by and large, Ince’s selections seem to have been effective.

“We’ve got a pretty deep squad,” said Nelsen, who has been one of the constants in the line-up alongside Chris Samba at centre back.

“Guys are always pushing for places every week. They train hard and always put their hands up to get selected.

“The poor guy, I can imagine the manager has had some really difficult decisions to make over the past few weeks.

“But that’s why he’s the manager. He has to make these difficult decisions.

“I wouldn’t want to pick the team at the moment.”

Nelsen, who does not expect to be called up for New Zealand’s World Cup qualifier against Fiji next month because the Kiwis have already won their group, warned after last month’s 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal that Rovers had become too cavalier for their own good.

They have conceded only three goals in five games since then and Nelsen, who missed much of pre-season because of the Olympics, believes that is down to the work put in on the training ground.

He said: “The season is so long and you go through waves of your defence doing well and maybe your strikers not scoring, and vice versa.

“We never really worked on things in defence because we never had the players at that time.

“We had international breaks and in pre-season I was gone and Andre (Ooijer) was injured, so it was just a matter of getting everyone together. We have done that and we’ve worked on it.

“I’m not saying that we’re going to be the perfect defence but you can tell over the past month that everything has tightened up.

“It’s not rocket science.”

At some clubs, there might be a risk of a dip in focus for a home game against Middlesbrough after a clash with Manchester United and a Lancashire derby.

But Nelsen, who turned 31 last weekend, says there is no danger of that at Rovers.

“You’ve got to be up for every game in the Premier League,” he said.

“If you lose your focus, you’re dead and buried.

“This is a very good chance for both teams to push up the table.

“These games are not necessarily must win, but you’ve got to get something out of them because Middlesbrough are a very good team.”