Charlton boss Karl Robinson says he can’t start with two strikers because they are not fit enough.

Addicks fans have been pleading with Robinson to change his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.

Michal Zyro and Nicky Ajose have been starved of first-team football this season, leaving the Liverpudlian with Josh Magennis as his only viable number nine option.

He stuck to his 4-2-3-1 line-up in the defeat to Blackpool on Tuesday evening, the club’s third reverse in a row.

Robinson said: “People talk about playing two up front, but we don't really have two strikers fit enough to start. Zyro is more of a winger than a striker.

“You’d love to change it to chase a game with ten or 15 minutes to go, but people will say ‘bring Nicky on’ but we’ve brought Nicky on and not much has changed. He still needs to get fit.

“He’s barely played any football this season. Tactically, I very rarely get many things wrong in relation to that.

“It was weird on Tuesday, we made two substitutions because of injuries. We had Pearcey [Jason Pearce] carrying an injury, Zyro and Reevesy [Ben Reeves] weren't meant to complete 90 minutes and so I only had one substitution left.

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“That’s why we waited so long to make that substitution. None of our substitutions were to go and win it against Blackpool, it was protection mode. That’s a bit unfair to be judged on that.

“I made a mistake [with my substitutes] against Oxford, I admitted to that. We’ve generally made positive substitutions and I’m very proud of the staff for what they're all trying to do. It’s been difficult. But we've needed strikers since the first of June last year.”

Robinson believes he has been flexible with his formation changes in recent games.

The Addicks transitioned into a 4-3-3 shape in the second-half of their 4-1 loss at Peterborough last weekend.

Robinson added: “People talk about tactics, if you look at our last four games, we've actually gone though four different systems, 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2 or 4-4-2 narrow.

“But people don't always see that during the game. I think if you look against Peterborough, we started at 4-2-3-1 and spun it to 4-4-3, we pushed Ez [Ezri Konsa] to sit and pushed Jake [Forster-Caskey] with Reevesy to play them a little bit higher.

“And in the first five, ten minutes of the second-half, we started getting a foothold in the game because of the change. But it’s fine, I respect what people say.”

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