Considered a finals contender at the start of the year, the Crows have fallen in a 0-4 hole and face a daunting task against unbeaten Carlton in round five.

But the bigger picture isn't on recently re-signed coach Nicks' radar.

"We're locked in right now on what's going to get it done this week," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"We're even going more fine than that; we're looking at each quarter.

"That's part of our process, which we felt on review last week we did really well."

Nicks saw light at the end of the tunnel in the 15-point defeat to red-hot Melbourne last Thursday night.

He is out to make the most of an extended break leading into Saturday's clash with Carlton (4-0) at Marvel Stadium, refining key aspects of the Crows' game.

"We've still got a lot of confidence in the way we play, the brand of footy we're playing," Nicks said.

"We've got to improve our skills and improve our forward-of-centre work.

"At the moment that connection's just not where it needs to be, but we've got the opportunities.

"If you look at some of the numbers - inside-50s we're performing reasonably well in - how can we capitalise on that is our challenge."

With that in mind, Nicks wants a more consistently aggressive mindset from his players.

"We've looked at that as a group; our ability to be a little bit more assertive and a little bit more aggressive when we get our opportunities," he said.

"Maybe that's something that we are doing later in games when we really need to.

"It's something we've addressed as a group; our ability to play with that mindset from the start.

"In saying that, I felt like last week we started in that mode, so we're making progress.

"We've got a lot of other parts of our game right. It's now a matter of us getting it done when we've got our opportunities."

Nicks ruled out wholesale changes to the Adelaide line-up this week, nominating Will Hamill as a likely replacement for injured defender Patrick Parnell (shoulder).

Australian Associated Press