Peterborough - Scouting Report

Peterborough United head to Meadow Lane having lost their last two games, they have only won once in their last six games and that was against Leyton Orient. So they find themselves in quite poor form, similar to ourselves prior to our recent two results. They will be wanting to put aside this disappointment by focusing on an away win.

The Posh will be calling upon their more senior players to give guidance to their young talent, as they're desperate to pick up points.

Run down of their last six games.

Saturday 13^th December – Leyton Orient 1 Peterborough United 2

Saturday 20^th December – Peterborough United 0 Preston North End 1

Friday 26^th December – Chesterfield 3 Peterborough United 2

Sunday 28^th December – Peterborough United 0 Doncaster Rovers 0

Saturday 10^th January – Peterborough United 0 Colchester United 2

Saturday 17^th January – Port Vale 2 Peterborough United 1

The Players – Fact Sheet

Highest Goal Scorers; Conor Washington 6, Marcus Maddison 6, Kyle Vassell 5 and Christian Burgess 3.

Persistent Foulers; Michael Bostwick 1 Red Card and 5 Yellow Cards, Joe Newell 1 Red Card 4 Yellow Cards, Jack Payne 7 Yellow Cards and Jermaine Anderson 4 Yellow Cards.

The Key Players.

Jack Payne, Michael Bostwick, Joe Newell, Kylee Vassell and Conor Washington.

Joe Newell is a versatile player, the 21 year old can cover the wing or play in the centre of midfield. He offers the Posh side creativity, with the ability of getting forward at every opportunity. Whilst the experienced Michael Bostwick and Jack Payne retain control in midfield, adding the ability to bring in the Peterborough strikers.

Kylee Vassell is a raw striker, with pace and an eye for goal. The 22 year old started as an academy player at Norwich before moving onto Brentford, he made his professional début for the Posh and enjoyed a successful start to the 2014/2015 season.

Similar to Vassell, Conor Washington is also very raw but appears to have a bright future in football.

He is a pacey, robust striker who can quickly become a danger to opposition sides. He has a natural ability to finish chances with power or by placing the ball carefully often chipping keepers in the process.

Style of Play, Strengths, and Weaknesses.

Peterborough United try to utilise the use of the flanks with direct passes into the opposition penalty box or to have strikers drop back to intercept carefully timed well positioned passes. They try to set the tempo, whilst retaining possession of the ball.

They look to mix experience with raw talent, which often allows them to play pretty attractive football.

Their strengths are how they direct play, using a mix of simple passes and long balls to gain ground over opposition players. They're a fairly tall, physical side, who offer plenty of energy and effort.

The Posh look to introduce players quickly into passes phases, with the added strength of being dangerous with set pieces and from aerial threats.

Weaknesses are mainly their inexperience, relying a little too much upon their experienced players. They're fairly scrappy in their approach, which leaves their defence open. Peterborough are fairly disorganized in their defending, which is the reason why they're not doing much better in this current season.

They invite pressure onto themselves by not picking up passes or allowing teams to directly run at them.

Inside their own penalty box they tend to panic, which sees them look to clear the ball when under heavy pressure often giving the ball straight back to their advancing counterparts. Also, unlike past season they don't often kill games when they should which creates further problems within itself, such as frustration and making rash challenges.