Essendon skipper Matthew Lloyd's days of being the focal point of the Bombers' attack are over with coach Matthew Knights set to continue last week's experiment of playing his long-time spearhead further up the ground.

Lloyd, the greatest goalkicker in the Bombers' history with 857 goals in 242 games, has been the Bombers' leading goalkicker in 10 of the past 11 years and is a three-time Coleman Medal winner as the league's leading goalkicker.

But as the Bombers have declined in recent times, he has struggled to have the same impact playing out of the goalsquare but looked back to his old self last week when starring further up the ground in the win over the Eagles.

The shift also helped the Bombers get a greater spread of goalkickers as ruckman David Hille, promising young forward Jay Neagle and long-time centre half-forward Scott Lucas - who relished playing in Lloyd's place closer to goal - all kicked three goals.

Knights said as captain Lloyd could also have far more impact on the team when playing closer to the action and he looks set to continue in that role for Sunday's MCG clash against arch-rivals Carlton.

"I discussed it with Matthew last week we agreed it would be a great opportunity to get him up the ground as captain, to be involved in the game and live in the moment," Knights said on Thursday.

"Sometimes at full forward you have to wait (to be involved in the play) for periods of time and it's fair to say that is a philosophy (playing Lloyd up the ground) that we will go after aggressively for the rest of the year."

"At times he (Lloyd) might still play deep forward but it's fair to say the very good sides have a lot of scoring options and we want to develop Jay Neagle, Scott Lucas and Adam McPhee up there as well as Lloyd."

Knights said Lloyd has already embraced his new role.

"He played consistent footy for four quarters last week and I was really proud of him," he said.

The Bombers will be looking to beat Carlton for the second time this season on Sunday but last week's win over the Eagles was their first since their victory over Carlton in Round 3.

In contrast Carlton has won six of its nine games since that loss to Essendon to emerge as a shock finals contender.

But Knights denied on Thursday the Blues' improvement has now exceeded that of his own side.

"I am not sure about that," he said, saying the last time the Bombers played the Blues they still won despite star spearhead Brendan Fevola kicking eight goals and skipper Chris Judd having 32 touches.

"But what they (Carlton) have been getting lately is a real even contribution from a lot of players and that is significant."

"So we are going to have to match that but we have played better ourselves the last three weeks."