Carlton coach Brett Ratten wants his slumping AFL team to be bold and instinctive and not fear mistakes against Geelong on Friday night.

Ratten is concerned the Blues, who have lost three of their past four games, have become more focused on what is going wrong than being creative.

He has told his players the shackles are off against the Cats.

“We’ll give you positions roughly, but let’s go and play,” Ratten told reporters on Wednesday.

“We’ve just got to be a lot bolder in our play and play with a little bit more freedom.

“If we make a blue, we make a blue.

“Sometimes you make a mistake and then the group stops running.

“They don’t run, they won’t pull the trigger and everyone becomes very stagnant and very safe.

“We need as a group to play a lot more bolder football.”

Ratten suggested players had entered self-preservation mode, trying to follow team rules to avoid blame rather than thinking about how they could make the play.

But he also said the Blues’ spate of injuries hurt, particularly the loss of tall players such as Jarrad Waite, Lachie Henderson and Matthew Kreuzer.

“I wouldn’t like to be 190cm plus at our football club at the moment,” he said.

“The other day when we were in Adelaide, we made sure the tall blokes didn’t cross the road without the green man on the lights.”

Kreuzer and Henderson are both pushing to return on Friday night, along with Nick Duigan.

But Waite continues to baffle the club with a back injury which is preventing him running and he does not seem to be recovering.

“It might just go click and we’ve got him back next week, but it might take another three weeks, four weeks. I’m not sure and we can’t put a finger on it,” Ratten said.

He said once Waite was injury-free, he would need to regain fitness through the VFL before making an AFL comeback.

In brighter news, Kreuzer has signed a contract keeping him at the club for the next three years, while Bryce Gibbs has committed for the next two.

“That’s where our future is and to have those two around our footy club for a long period is great,” Ratten said.