Dundee may not have a game this weekend because of the international break but it is unlikely there will be much in the way of rest for the players.
With the Dark Blues having lost their last five league matches and currently propping up the Premiership table, Neil McCann will be putting his squad through their paces before the crunch game at Dens with third bottom Kilmarnock a week on Saturday.
The manager will certainly not be short of resources on the training pitch with Dundee currently boasting a robust roster.
With plenty of options at his disposal, McCann has shuffled his pack in recent weeks with four changes to his starting formation for the game two weekends ago against Hamilton and another five for the trip to Hibs last Saturday.
Incredibly, despite having a full seven-man bench at Easter Road, there were still 11 recognised first-team players not even named in the squad for the game that ended in a 2-1 defeat.
Goalie Scott Bain was obviously absent as he is on the naughty step after an alleged bust-up with McCann which is now the subject of an internal disciplinary process.
Long-term injury victims James McPake and Craig Wighton were also missing, club captain Darren O’Dea was recovering from concussion while Scott Allan only made his comeback from hernia surgery for the Under-20s on Monday night.
That still left James Vincent, Danny Williams, Julen Etxabeguren, Kosta Gadzhalov, Jon Aurtenetxe and Nicky Low, who has just returned from a loan spell with Derry City, deemed surplus to requirements.
All things considered, that is a full team missing out on a match-day squad for one reason or another.
McCann deserves a lot of credit for showing his faith in youth this season with the likes of the 22-year-olds, Jack Hendry and Glen Kamara being two of the Dundee success stories in this troubled campaign so far – indeed, the average age of the starting XI in Leith was just 24.
However, the emergence of the youngsters has seen the likes of Gadzhalov, along with former Inverness duo Vincent and Williams – who both still have another year left on their contracts – marginalised.
The left-out 11 added to the squad from Easter Road mean Dundee are currently running with a 29-man roster.
Apologies to anyone I may have overlooked but those numbers seem bloated especially in comparison to the likes of near neighbours Dundee United who have 22 with a similar number in Perth with St Johnstone.
It will be easier said than done but there should be some pruning carried out at Dens in January as it cannot be healthy having all these experienced players kicking their heels.
Certainly, I cannot think of another club in Scotland – even mega-rich Celtic – who could afford to have seven first-team centre-halves on their books as Dundee have.
