Preston North End manager Alex Neil has offered the club's training sessions as a chance for fringe players to impress for a spot in the first-team.
North End have started the season in fantastic form and see themselves sit second in the Championship table after 16 games.
Neil has demonstrated recently that his squad do boast strength in depth, and have come away unscathed in recent matches despite losing both Daniel Johnson and Ben Pearson to injury and suspension respectively.
The former Norwich manager admitted on Tuesday that competition for places is fierce and players such as Andre Green face competition in their playing position.
Speaking of utilising the training sessions, Neil told the Lancashire Evening Post: "When you are not in the team your training that week is even more important, that is their opportunity to impress me and show everybody else why you should be playing.
"The difficulty they have got at the moment is how well the team has been playing and performing, it has been really difficult for some of the lads to get in," Neil continued.
On-loan Aston Villa winger Andre Green is yet to make a league start for the Lilywhites and has only featured four times off the bench for the club so far this term.
"Andre is in a position which a lot of the other lads who are not really featuring, are in, e’s got arthritis which means he’d had a few injections in it, so at the moment he’s not currently fit," Neil revealed.
Green may look at players such as Joe Rafferty and Josh Harrop as inspiration for breaking into the first-team, and on Tuesday Alex Neil pointed to the duo as fine examples of players breaking into the side.
"Joe Rafferty couldn’t get in at the start of the season and he hasn’t looked back, Josh Harrop wasn’t in the squads at the start of the season and didn’t really look back until he got an injury," Neil explained to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
Preston travel to Derby County at the weekend with Ben Pearson back in contention after serving his suspension in the Lilywhites' last game.
Other fringe players will have the rest of the week to impress Neil and to possibly provide their boss with a selection headache for the trip to Pride Park.
The Verdict
Preston have a minimal injury and suspension list at the moment and although this is a positive thing for any manager it will certainly provide a selection headache for Alex Neil.
Given Preston's form it is understandable why Neil would find it hard to justify dropping some of his more consistent performers in favour of his fringe players and he is right to say it is up to these players to impress him in training.
Should North End hit a spell of bad form, Neil could look to the fringe players to impress him and possibly come into the team.
In using Joe Rafferty and Josh Harrop as examples it demonstrates that Neil is willing to bring players into the side and if they were to impress him could stake a claim for a more regular place.