Paul Tisdale admits he could be forced into naming an unchanged team for the match with Northampton Town on Saturday as he battles against an injury crisis at the club.
Jordan Moore-Taylor, Danny Butterfield, Tom Nichols, Jamie Reid and Christian Ribeiro are all currently out of action.
The City squad was already one of the smallest in League Two to begin with after the club spent the majority of the summer months under a transfer embargo.
Tisdale is hoping the injury crisis will lift in a couple of weeks, but that comes too soon for the trip to the Sixfields Stadium.
"The starting line-up is not too difficult to predict these days, because we have got 15 or 16 core players – and that is not counting for the young, young pros – and two or three of those are out," he said.
"So unless I do something really left-field, it is about getting those players on the pitch."
Tisdale made a couple of changes to the starting line-up for Saturday's 1-1 draw with York City as he moved Matt Oakley into defence and played Scot Bennett up front.
It saw the side change tactics as well as they went for a more direct approach rather than the neat passing football the club has become known for under Tisdale.
However, having spent most of pre-season trying to adopt a new 5-3-2 system, Tisdale admitted he has had to put some of his plans on hold as he waits for players to come back.
"With Christian Ribeiro and Jordan Moore-Taylor out injured at the moment, a fair bit of the stuff that we have prepared and practised I'm prepared to shelve for three weeks until we are back at full strength," he said.
"It is about giving us the best chance of being as competitive as possible, and on Saturday I put out a team that gave us a chance to be physically dependable and consistent with decision making.
"I still felt we were a little bit unsure with some of our work, but that is to be expected.
"I would imagine that we will be pretty close to the same line-up on Saturday.
"There may be a change, but I would imagine it will be as close to that 11 as I can be."
Northampton, who have former Exeter City loanee Lawson D'Ath in their line-up, will provide a tough test for the Grecians.
They struggled for the majority of last season, but having appointed Chris Wilder a their boss in late January they avoided relegation and have spent the summer strengthening the squad.
However, Tisdale feels it is more important that his side concentrate on getting their own game right.
"Northampton are a strong side, who have strong players and they have used the summer to make some positive signings," he said. "Chris (Wilder) will undoubtedly develop his own team and we know that in a short space of time he will have a team that will be challenging for the play-off places.
"But, I think at the moment we have to appreciate that every game is going to be a difficult game for us.
"We have to view every game, home or away, no matter who it is against, as one which is going to need our utmost performance in order to get a result.
"We will have all our reports on Northampton and we will understand the game ahead of us, but still we need 100 per cent performance again from everybody."
Watch highlights from Exeter City's 2-1 victory at Northampton Town last season, which came courtesy of a late goal from John O'Flynn.
