HIS side has lost its past two games by a combined 30 goals, but Carlton coach Denis Pagan says he will stick with his attacking game plan as the best way of teaching his players.

Pagan said he had no plans to drop extra players back into defence in coming weeks in an attempt to reduce the big scores rivals were clocking against the Blues.

He said dropping extra defenders back would compromise the learning of Carlton's young forwards, who would then find themselves outnumbered by opposition defenders.

"We could put numbers back behind the ball and I'm sure we could cut a sizeable amount off what our opposition are kicking against us," Pagan said.

"I don't know if it's going to improve our players.

"It's an area we are constantly thinking about, that, but I just don't think it's fair for aspiring young forwards to have four on six, on seven."

Saturday's 77-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco followed a bigger defeat in round 12, when Hawthorn thumped the Blues by 100 points.

Kicking goals has not been a problem at Carlton in 2007, the 14th-placed side has statistically the second-best attack in the competition, behind only ladder leader Geelong.

Stopping the opposition scoring has not been so easy.

The Blues are conceding an average of 130 points a game this season and their defence is 232 points worse than the next-worst backline, that of bottom side Richmond.

Carlton's forwards will have an even tougher time kicking a winning score against Melbourne on Sunday now that full-forward Brendan Fevola has been suspended for a week.

Pagan reiterated his belief that the Blues had got ahead of themselves after a bright start to the season, which included the pre-season victory, two wins from the opening three premiership games and back-to-back victories in rounds 10 and 11.

"It's amazing, two weeks ago it was so positive at Carlton, everyone was jumping out of their skin... we might have got a little in front of ourselves," he said.

"All of a sudden it's gone very pear-shaped and we deserve the criticism we're getting, and we're trying to do everything we possibly can to rectify that."