Peterborough United were deservedly trounced by Bradford City in their latest League encounter but why did it happen?
After the exertions of the Cup on Wednesday night, Graham Westley got things woefully wrong for the first time since arriving at Posh.
Westley admitted he felt his players deserved to keep their shirts after last Wednesday as he made just three changes to the starting line-up. Why??
With the squad we have and many players who have played regularly this season and who didn`t play on Wednesday, why not give them a run out?
Michael Smith, Tom Nichols and Adil Nabi were the three players brought into the starting line-up but he could`ve also brought in defenders Harry Toffolo and Ricardo Almeida Santos, midfielders Erhun Oztumer and Marcus Maddison while striker Souleymane Coulibaly could`ve partnered Nichols up front!
That`s eight players with fresh legs who have all played regularly! Add keeper Ben Alnwick and you are looking at just two players who either played against the Baggies or who have rarely played (or who have yet to make their debut!).
Even after the West Brom match, Westley admitted the efforts had taken a lot out of some of the players and that Andrew Fox even ran over 17k in that match! So why did he start him?
Westley must`ve been regretting his team selection early on as it was obvious many players were struggling and withdrew Fox just after the half hour mark!
From then onwards, it looked like we had Darren Ferguson back in charge with the strange substitutions and the constantly changing formation with players playing out of position! It was that old Fergie strategy of putting square pegs in round holes and as we know, it rarely works!
Baldwin swapped with Bostwick to play at the base of the diamond. Smith was in centre midfield for the second half. Why have Maddison at left back when we`re struggling in midfield and up front while Toffolo remained on the bench?
The Posh centre-backs had a torrid time and just couldn`t get to grips with the Bradford front pair of James Hanson and Wes Thomas. Although many people have a dislike of Ricardo Almeida Santos, arguably he could`ve done a much better job than Baldwin, Zakuani and Bostwick in this match.
With Forrester on the bench, Posh just didn`t have anyone on the pitch that could control the game. Hopefully, the powers that be at Posh are on the look-out for the next Forrester as he will surely be on his way in the summer unless the sale of Washington means we won`t have to sell anyone but if we receive a good offer for someone would we stand in their way to the detriment of the team even if we don`t need to sell anyone?
It was a difficult match for Adil Nabi who was making his full debut for Posh as there was just no movement by his fellow Posh players to make anything happen. Likewise, Tom Nichols wasn`t given much opportunity to shine as most of the balls played to him were in the air which is no good for someone of his height! Shaq Coulthirst again looked poor and although he did try, he took too long to pass the ball after realising he wouldn`t be able to get a shot in!
Overall, it was a massively bad day at the office but we just have to put it down to poor management and a very tired team! We shouldn`t dwell on it as we need to focus completely on the remaining 16 matches of the season as we look to drag ourselves up the table and into the play-offs. We are six points away from the play-offs but a huge 14 points away from the automatic promotion places, which is surely too big a gap to catch?
Posh now have a week off to recover fully and to get things back on track in readiness for their massive match at Millwall next Saturday. The Lions currently occupy the last play-off place but they face a match before that. They host mid-table Scunthorpe United on Tuesday who had a good one-nil win over Southend United on Saturday. Posh could do with the Irons achieving a similar result against the Lions.
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