Graeme Souness has conceded Blackburn are missing the influence of Damien Duff but insists overall his squad are stronger than a year ago.
Rovers have struggled badly this season and a run of five consecutive league defeats has left them second-from-bottom of the Barclaycard Premiership.
Republic of Ireland star Duff left in the summer to join Chelsea while David Dunn went to Birmingham and Souness conceded their replacements have yet to match their standards.
Souness said: "Any team would miss Damien Duff, but we are losing games not because he's not here any longer but because defensively we have been dopey at times.
"There's no doubting that if Damien was still here he would give us an added thing that very few people have, he's an exciting player who can take people on and run with the ball in the last third.
"But we don't have him and we just have to get on with it and I still believe we have a better group of players than we had last year. In Barry Ferguson and Brett Emerton we got good replacements but who may take a bit of time to find their feet."