Cardiff City will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing defeat in the South Wales derby when they host Birmingham City in the Welsh capital on Saturday.

Neil Warnock's side suffered a 1-0 defeat against Swansea as Ben Wilmot netted a 24th-minute winner, with Cardiff delivering a lacklustre performance across the pitch as they struggled to contain their opponents.

The Bluebirds have so far looked very different to the side that won promotion from the Championship in 2018, despite the fact that many of the players from that squad are still at the club, and Warnock may now need to make serious changes in order to improve results.

His side are still yet to win away from home this term and, at present, their impressive unbeaten record at the Cardiff City Stadium has been the only thing keeping the 14th-placed Bluebirds away from a relegation battle.

The key difference between their performances this campaign and that from their promotion-winning season has been defensive frailty, with Warnock's side having already conceded 20 goals since the start of the season.

This becomes an especially poor record when it is considered that Warnock often prides his teams on their defensive strength, and the fact his back line has often looked suspect indicates this Cardiff side has somewhat regressed of late.

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The centre-back partnership of Aden Flint and Sean Morrison has sometimes looked relatively solid on home soil, but matches such as the Swansea defeat have served to prove that this cannot be Cardiff's first-choice pairing throughout the remainder of the season.

The Bluebirds all too often look prone to a defensive error, and this is why Warnock should now be considering a change to his back line, with Curtis Nelson and Sol Bamba waiting in the wings to step into the side.

Bamba is in the final stages of his recovery from a serious injury he suffered back in March, which means Warnock will need to be careful in not rushing him back into the side, and this could open the door to Nelson ahead of the Birmingham clash.

The 26-year-old has only made one appearance for the senior side this term as he has been restricted to a spot on the bench during the other league matches, and there is now surely no harm in giving him a run-out against the Blues, with Flint seeming the most likely to make way given his recent unconvincing performances.

Cardiff fans have not had a chance to see Nelson given a run of matches in the side since his summer move from Oxford United, and the time might just have come to deploy him the Bluebirds' defence.

This would add a much-needed element of freshness to Cardiff's defence, while it would also be a strong statement from Warnock to prove that nobody's place in the side is safe if they keep delivering sub-par performances.