CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has backed out-of-sorts forward Eddie Betts to bounce back into form against Adelaide on Saturday night.

Betts, 24, started the season with a 17-possession, three-goal effort against Richmond, but his form suffered a sharp drop-off after that with his next three games seeing him average just eight disposals.

Ratten put Betts on notice ahead of last weekend's clash against Essendon, but despite another quiet outing, the coach said it was in the team's long-term interests to persist with the small forward.
 
"I think Eddie would be the first to put his hand up [to say] that he's not in great form, but I think the bit that we need to do as a coaching group is to get the best out of Eddie," Ratten said from Visy Park on Wednesday.

"When he's up and going he's in the top handful of players in our football club, so we need to get him back to that form and we'll have to work through that over the next few days to get him nice and sharp.

"I would more lean to leaving him in the team than leaving him out."  

Tall forward Lachie Henderson managed just three touches before being subbed out of the drawn match against the Bombers, but Ratten said he would also be given a chance to build some form.

The dramatic final minutes of last Saturday's match saw decision-making and ball-handling errors that ultimately cost Carlton two premiership points, but Ratten said the thrilling climax had not been the focus of his match review with his attention quickly switching to the Crows.

Neil Craig's men travel to Melbourne looking to correct a worrying form slide that has seen them lose their past two matches, but Ratten remains wary of the side that enjoyed a seven-game winning run against the Blues before last season's round-four encounter.

"When they've been good they've been exceptionally good and when they've been poor they've been not so great," he said.

"But historically when Adelaide hasn't played so well they've responded under Neil and come our firing and we've been on the back end of a couple of those.

"We'll be really mindful of how they've going to attack this game so we'll be keeping our guard up."