what to expect from the POSH and what would you do?

Hit them with youthful pace

Day

Williams
Ehmer
Kilgour
Leahy

Hargreaves
Liddle

Walker
McCormick
Tutonda

Hanlan


Young lads with loads to prove and might prove us wrong!

It’s like flogging a dead horse with players like Rodman, Ogogo, Grant, Harries and Baldwin. They have been poor. Go at them with attacking intent and you never know.

If he starts with all our CB’s and Ogogo and Grant I’ll start to question his sanity!

UP THE YOUNG GAS!

So far POSH have played majority of their matches this season in a 3-4-1-2 Formation.  They score plenty of goals and no guess who the danger man is... JCH 13 league goals.  Also a massive threat is Dembele with 5 although his main threat is that he is a trickly little bastard!  Despite the threat, we kept these two players pretty quiet when they came to the Mem and instead conceded two wonder goals from midfield.  Not sure this will happen this time around with them flying high at home and us really struggling and away.

*Please note - I have manually calculated the metrics as opposed to taking them off the stats site as it was counting 'matches' regardless of whether you played 5 mins or 90 mins.  This has thrown a few different players into the mix due to smaller amounts of minutes played, but food for thought none the less.

JCH 3.0 and Szmodics 2.6 take the most Shots per game
Gas comparison: Ayunga 3.7, Nicholson 3.0 and Hanlan 2.0
Key passes per game for them is Ward 2.0 and Dembele 1.8
Gas comparison: Westbrooke 2.2 & OZtumer 1.8
Winning the ball back are Hamilton 3.6, Taylor 2.6 and Thompson 2.5 Tackles per game
Gas comparison: Hargreaves 4.9, Koiki 2.5, Tutonda 2.5, Harries 2.4, Grant 1.8, Kilgour 1.7 and Baldwin 1.6
Clearances per game wise they have Kent 4.6, Beevers 4.3, Mason 3.8 and Thompson 2.2
Gas comparison: Jack Baldwin 5.7, Cian Harries 5.6, Max Ehmer 4.5 and Alfie Kilgour 3.6

*Please note - League stats only

+ Strengths
Creating chances using through balls - Very Strong
Finishing scoring chances - Strong
Shooting from direct free kicks - Strong
Protecting the lead - Strong
Stealing the ball from the opposition - Strong
Defending set pieces - Strong

- Weaknesses
Avoiding individual errors - Weak
Defending counter attacks - Weak


Peterborough's Style of Play
Attack through the middle
Take long shots
Short passes
Attempt through balls often
Opponents play aggressively against them
Playing in their own half
Non-aggressive
Consistent first eleven

So... pretty much everything stacks against us here in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, their current form, the fact they score so many goals and the fact that we really haven't settled on our formation / identity despite half the season now having been played.  It's not a surprise given that we were trained to play 3-5-2 all preseason and the start of the actual season before switching out managers and very little training time to hand due to the fixture backlog.  Maybe its been a little unfair to us in terms of injuries but lets not make excuses for below expectation performances of late.  So what shall we do / try on a cold tuesday night under the lights when we really are the underdogs?  Try for a nil nil again?  Yeah tried it twice - it doesnt work.  So in my view we just gotta go balls deep and try to win 4-5 or something.  For me I wanna see people playing in their strongest positions possible, that way we have no excuses.  Also lets get people playing against their reputation then we can see what they are made of!  So here is my suggestion rather than an expect

When attacking drop Grant between Kilgour and Ehmer for a 3 man defensive line
Williams and or Koiki race on to support the attack
Ayunga is the target man with Hanlan able to use the damn space he is much better working in
Give Barrett a chance to live up to his rep of Jan 2020 in his most favourite of places attacking left mid
McCormick and Westy box to box and pressing their midfielders


What do you think? What would you do?

Strange results always happen in football, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be one of those games. Ever the optimist!   

I'd go for a 4-2-3-1 something like this, with 3-4 players kept higher up the pitch as a constant outlet.      

                Day

Williams Alfie Ehmer Leahy

        Ogogo Grant

Rodman McCormick Barrett/Westbrooke

            Hanlon

Too many teams go defensive against the 'better' teams, but aren't good enough to just defend for 90 mins so get the ball up to the front men at every opportunity and put them on the back foot from kick off. They will just push numbers forward if we sit too deep.

I also hope that JCH is as bad as he was in our last game against them and Ehmer is moved back into the middle for the heading battle.

Rodman is in based purely on previous seasons as he has had goals in him, but you could easily push Hanlon out there, where is arguably better, and put Ayunga up top.

Not sure about the left of the 3, Westbrooke needs to be more decisive with his forward play, but is usually involved more in games than others. Barrett may or may not work but needs a chance and I still wouldn't put a left back in this position (Koiki or Tutonda) without seeing a bit more of them.

What is important is that the 2 sitting midfielders do actually sit and protect the defence, which then enables the forward players to play.

We’ve got so many players who can play this system it beggars belief that Tisdale played the formation he did last two games with players out of position.
I worked it out Saturday night as 8 players available who could fit those 3 attacking mid positions.