Cardiff City bottom of league

Cardiff City are the only Championship side to have used fewer than 20 players this season. The league leaders have used fewer players, just 19, in their excellent start to the campain than any other side from the division.

Interestingly Preston and Burnley (2nd and 3rd in the table respectively) have each used just 20 players indicating the benefits of a small close-knit squad. It is around this time in the season that injuries and suspensions can mount up and player rotation to give others a rest can be extremely useful. Sunderland, floundering in 18th place, have used the most players with 29 different players representing the club.

City's first XI has been extremely stable so far consisting of:

GK: Alexander
RB: Gilbert
LB: McNaughton
CB: Purse
CB: Loovens
RM: Parry
LM: Ledley
CM: McPhail
CM: Scimeca
ST: Chopra
ST: Thompson

The substitutes bench has also remained settled with Dave Jones' usual choices being 5 of the following 6:

Howard (GK), Johnson (CB), Flood (RM), Kamara (RM), Campbell (ST) and Glombard (ST).

James Chambers has played after arriving on-loan from Watford to cover Kerrea Gilbert's 3 game suspension and Darcy Blake has also made a substitutes appearance against Leeds Utd.

Such a small group of players has brought about a fantastic team spirit and the players all work so hard for each other. With injury to Thompson, and a prospective ban for McPhail coming up - Jones may be forced to swap the team around more giving the likes of Flood the chance to impress.

Each time we have had a key player missing, Cardiff have faltered and re-inforcements may be needed to maintain the promotion push.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.