A Squad Game.

[Grewks]

A few weeks back I made a thread stating that in my opinion we would not take second spot, and that I would in fact not want to. Everybody wants Promotion, but do we really want to do a derby?

On our day, with our first eleven all fit we could match a few premier league sides, but take 2-3 players out of the side and we look extremely average for this level, probably a mid-table team. Today's game was the exact microcosm to help explain this situation, we cannot rely on our fringe players who are simply not good enough.

I was invited via a work colleague to attend the game with some of the posh directors, resulting in a pre-match tour around the stadium, where I saw stringer and youngy. I heard wood was out 2 days ago, and just asked stringer again to make sure, which he confirmed he was injured but was not aware how, he thought it was a knee or ankle injury. I asked him if he thought we would play a lone striker formation, or my suggestion of futacs as he offers an aerial threat, to which stringer replied he will start vardy. This was probably 2 hours before kick-off before the team had arrived, Stringer was clearly suggesting to me that NP does have a bias towards Vardy, and his facial expressions when mentioning vardy and waghorn's name told me everything about how he obviously doesn't rate them highly. He then replied to my asking about futacs saying 'he will never start futacs'.

What surprised me about the game today, actually occurred before kick-off. When i got the team sheet i looked at it and thought, we are second in the league, they are bottom, but i actually rated their attacker better than ours. They didn't have a weak link like ourselves with vardy, they had 3 very tricky and creative players in boyd, tomlin and gayle. Don't get me wrong, I fully rate nuge and knocky, but they simply had no time on the ball to do anything because they were always confident of containing vardy and always marked him 1 to 1 whereas the put 2-3 players on knocky, marshall and nuge. How can a team second in the league go into a game against a bottom side who have a more dangerous and creative frontline?

From here on, things only got worse.......

Andy King - How many times are we gonna have to carry him before we realise he is extremely average? A six out of 10 player at best.

He doesn't have the strength or tackling ability to play a defensive midfield role compared to james, he doesn't have the passing range, creativity or maneuverability to get around the park like drinkwater, and he no longer scores goals. So what do we actually get from him? A lost man wondering around a field he no longer has the ability to be in. With the likely reply of 'form is temporary class is permanent', well torres has been extremely average for 3-4 years now and suggests this isn't always true.

Jamie Vardy - Shown from my comments above it is clear NP is justifying his £1 million fee spend on him. The owners wouldn't care how much they spend on a specific individual player, all they care about is results, and results > Justifying vardy.

Martyn Waghorn - probably a bit harsh on him as he was only used as a sub, but how many times have he and vardy been given chances by pearson this season and let him down? They are not good enough for the championship, so that is 2 more players we would need to replace if/when we go up.

Admittedly, once we scored we had a 10 minute spell where we could have been 3 or 4 up, but we lacked the quality to stick it in the net, vardy had 3 great chances.

Over the summer, as we will still be in this division, we need to strengthen in midfield and up top.

Vardy and waghorn are not up to standard at this level, wellens, gally, beckford and danns need to be gone, as these 4 players prevent us from signing others which could actually play a part in games.

players to keep -

midfield - marshall, knocky, dyer, james, drinky, king (simply because he may improve, and can be effective in a 5 man midfield).

forwards - wood, nuge, futacs.

From looking at that, we need 2 central midfielders, an ugly bastard to play in games like the one today and just put a foot in now every so often, and one who offers a goal from the middle of the park.

We need at least another winger, especially with how hot and cold dyer and marshall are lately, aswell as a couple of strikers. We actually lack a striker with raw natural pace, we also lack a proper number 9, like a tomlin/boyd who links the midfield and attack.

[Essington blue]

Got to agree with most of that, but keeping dyer would be a complete no no. Dyer runs & that's it, he has no football ability at all.

& why would you keep a player in fuctas who doesen't get the slightest of look ins now? Finally I presume you don't think Pearson will be boss next season due to your suggestion of king being useful in a 5 man midfield, cus as you well know stubborn arse Pearson plays 4-4-2 no matter what.

[Grewks]

Got to agree with most of that, but keeping dyer would be a complete no no. Dyer runs & that's it, he has no football ability at all.

& why would you keep a player in fuctas who doesen't get the slightest of look ins now? Finally I presume you don't think Pearson will be boss next season due to your suggestion of king being useful in a 5 man midfield, cus as you well know stubborn arse Pearson plays 4-4-2 no matter what.

Dyer has won us many points this season, but on small pitches like today there is no room to allow him to become effective.

I do think, and want, Pearson to be manager next season. He has played the occasional 5 man midfield, and as vardy and waghorn have again proved they are lacking, he may play it more and play a loan striker until wood is fit.

Admittedly, as much as i like pearson, his lack of pragmatism will eventually be his downfall. We struggled last season at posh because we lacked a target man up top, and today we had one of the bench but didn't use him.

[Charl91]

I mostly agree. We could afford for King to go missing when he was popping up with goals, but that was a long time ago. He is too lightweight and proably not creative enough. even if his one touch passing can be good - he needs to prove that he's still good enough. Waghorn and Vardy simply aren't good enough however.

I think Dyer can have an effective role off the bench - his pace offers a different dimension.

[Essington blue]

That's the key phrase though isn't it "you think dyer can be effective" He's been coming off the bench the last couple of months now & bringing nothing positive to the team. So many people get blinded by the fact he has pace. He's a headless chicken.

[Les-TA-Jon]

Top post Grewks!

1 - Please send the link to this thread to NP

2 - You seem quite connected - mates with Posh Directors and Ian Stringer! - maybe we could all get together and petition the FA to cancel all our remaining fixtures and give us permission to ship out all of our rubbish team - Vardy, Waggy, King, Dyer, Marshall et al.

You know since the season's over and all that

[morris1234]

Ill read and respect any view, particularly when well put together like yours is and you do make some good points.

But a few of mine, very quickly put as its late.

You can't really say we need players that Peterborough have just because we lost. The table doesn't lie and we simply lost a game of football today, it happens. The champions of the premierleague had a bad day today and I doubt they looked at Southampton and thought 'we need rickie lambert'

It's just one loss, our first in 2013.

[Grewks]

Top post Grewks!

1 - Please send the link to this thread to NP

2 - You seem quite connected - mates with Posh Directors and Ian Stringer! - maybe we could all get together and petition the FA to cancel all our remaining fixtures and give us permission to ship out all of our rubbish team - Vardy, Waggy, King, Dyer, Marshall et al.

You know since the season's over and all that

Ahhh, i had expected many comments full of sarcasm.

I am not 'mates' with posh directors, i simply work for one and was invited as i was last year as he knows i am a leicester fan. He himself is a Man United fan, but has surprisingly benefited financially from sponsoring the Posh.

I never once stated that i was mates with stringer either. Part of the stadium tour includes a tour of the media facilities at which I saw stringer, and asked him whether wood was definetly out, and what he thought would happen with the line-up, to which he answered he expects NP to pick vardy, due to bias (he did not directly state this but he was definetly implying this by his facial expressions).

I have not stated our season is our, and yes we could still get top 2. But i do not want us to. If we went up this season, we would have to sign 8-10 players, it is never a good idea to gel a side in the top flight, just look at QPR.

[Grewks]

Ill read and respect any view, particularly when well put together like yours is and you do make some good points.

But a few of mine, very quickly put as its late.

You can't really say we need players that Peterborough have just because we lost. The table doesn't lie and we simply lost a game of football today, it happens. The champions of the premierleague had a bad day today and I doubt they looked at Southampton and thought 'we need rickie lambert'

It's just one loss, our first in 2013.

I never said we need Peterborough players, i just stated that IMO Boyd and Tomlin offer something we don't have, and it would be nice to have a similar player in our squad.

We only appear to have either central midfielders or strikers, no one who plays in the pocket like Tomlin does, and boyd can do, to link to midfield to attack when we haven't got a big man up top which we can hit.(Which all sides need to play long occasionally - even barcelona have adapted a long ball, over the top rather than to a player though).

[kingfox]

First long thread I've ever read

Agree with most of it, but ruling out promotion is a bit of a steep prediction - one bit I did not like.

Our problem though is our depth, we lack it, and due to us lacking depth, we then have to rely on poor fringe players to come in and try and do a job for us. We can't rely on Wood and Nugent, but the back up to them is seriously poor, Vardy is a waste of £1 million, many fans realise that now, while Waghorn is one of those players who seems to be up and down like a yo-yo. Having to bring the likes of Marshall or Dyer off from the bench, knowing they will either be hit or miss is quite worrying, while bringing on the likes of Vardy, Waghorn and Futacs on doesn't fill me with confidence, those three players hardly have the qualities to change games, like Adam Le Fondre has done at Reading.

If injuries occur, then we seem to be in a bad place, take Morgan, James, Drinkwater, Knockaert, Nugent or Wood out the team, we tend to struggle, because then we have to rely on King, Marshall and Dyer, and either Waghorn or Vardy to help us win games. King started the season well, but his performances have seriously dipped again, Marshall was meant to be a key player for us this season, he hasn't shown it, while Waghorn is hit and miss like Dyer, and Vardy is just not good enough.

Fully fit squad, and we have a strong 11, one of the strongest in the league, take a few players out, and we tend to struggle recently. God knows if we can get in any loan players, but we really need some, to help push numbers up and add that extra bit of quality on the bench that we are lacking.

[Aus Fox]

To say you don't want promotion is possibly the most stupid and short sighted thing I have ever heard! And I have read a few rediculas things on here!

If we go up and finish bottom next season we win 60 million in prize money plus parachute payments which in turn is invested in our squad to help is bounce back, going up and down is not necessarily a bad thing, west brom did it for a few years and are now moving forward, sometimes we need to bounce around a little before taking off.

Our best players will be playing premier league football next season regardless of us going up or not, so we will have to rebuild anyway it just a case of if that's in the premier league or not. We have a young squad that are still learning their trade and will continue to develop under Pearson.

Finally I don't get the love in with Fuctas, it seems amongst our supporters the less you play the better you become, remember we don't see these players in training week in Week out, in a results driven business clearly if Pearson thought he could offer more he would be starting!

We are still second and there on merit, one bad result doesn't make us shit!

[Les-TA-Jon]

Ahhh, i had expected many comments full of sarcasm.

I have not stated our season is over, and yes we could still get top 2. But i do not want us to. If we went up this season, we would have to sign 8-10 players, it is never a good idea to gel a side in the top flight, just look at QPR.

Please read my sarcasm as forum banter - aiming to make a point when I can't be bothered to argue more effectively and eloquently.

Over the summer, as we will still be in this division, we need to strengthen in midfield and up top.

And yeah you did say our season is over so...

[ramadaone]

That's the key phrase though isn't it "you think dyer can be effective" He's been coming off the bench the last couple of months now & bringing nothing positive to the team. So many people get blinded by the fact he has pace. He's a headless chicken.

You didn't see his pull back yesterday leaving Waggy with an open goal from inside the 6 yard box then?

Guess the smoke was in your eyes

[volpeazzurro]

Very good post with which I mostly agree. Promotion would of course secure big bucks. Firstly this should be used to pay off any loans to our owner (including interest). Perhaps it's just me, but this worries me. If being an owner means you just have to borrow money for your club and go on a spending spree then please let me have a go. I'm not necessarily knocking them, I'm just wary. Any monies left (plus possibly a bit of borrowing, I am realistic) can then be spent on improving the squad which would obviously have to have a different look to it compared to the present one. I suggest Jeremy Peace it at West Brom sets a good example of how a club should be run. If we did come straight back down then at least the club would be in a healthy position, god only knows what will happen to QPR!

As for players, yes I agree with Vardy being sadly not up to it, but every manager, even Sir Alex makes mistakes as it's not an exact science. King also needs to go imo for all the reasons you gave, along with Wellens (who by the way, unlike some, I think has been a good servant to us), Gallagher, Danns and Beckford as all these free up money in wages for any new players.

Perhaps James wasn't fully fit yesterday who knows, but King should be nowhere near the team imo unless in a 5 man midfield when his 'going missing for most of the game' can to some extent be accommodated in the hope he might pop up with a goal. Futacs couldn't be any worse than Vardy, Waghorn may be better if he had a consistent run in the side whilst Wood is missing.

[KFS]

I would like to see Nigel operating a few signings in and out of the loan market. He won't, he's too stubborn. Maybe it will work and he'll be applauded for operating such a small squad, but a few players yesterday won't fill me with much hope.

[RyanLCFC18]

Ahhh, i had expected many comments full of sarcasm.

I am not 'mates' with posh directors, i simply work for one and was invited as i was last year as he knows i am a leicester fan. He himself is a Man United fan, but has surprisingly benefited financially from sponsoring the Posh.

I never once stated that i was mates with stringer either. Part of the stadium tour includes a tour of the media facilities at which I saw stringer, and asked him whether wood was definetly out, and what he thought would happen with the line-up, to which he answered he expects NP to pick vardy, due to bias (he did not directly state this but he was definetly implying this by his facial exp<b></b>ressions).

I have not stated our season is our, and yes we could still get top 2. But i do not want us to. If we went up this season, we would have to sign 8-10 players, it is never a good idea to gel a side in the top flight, just look at QPR.

look at stoke an norwich an also southamptons teams when they wemt up, we have more quality than they did back theb

[Essington blue]

You didn't see his pull back yesterday leaving Waggy with an open goal from inside the 6 yard box then?

Guess the smoke was in your eyes

Yes I did see that one thing he did when he came on, I also saw his performance earlier in the season against Ipswich that people like to scrape up when he's being knocked, because that is all they can go back too. Do us a favour & pin point the good things kasper, de laet, Morgan, dd, knock, nugent & wood have done for us? You won't be able too cus they all play well in the main, near enough every game.

[Candidcamera]

There is a real prospect of going backwards if we don't go up this year. We need to get up to keep some of the highly talented young players and I think we need a loan striker to cover Wood's absences. I would not have minded seeing Futacs yesterday but I have to rely on Nigel to know how good a player he is and therefore not to go with him. Potentially I think this is a better squad than Martin O'Neill's. The signings since Nigel came back have been fabulous.

[smudger63]

There is a real prospect of going backwards if we don't go up this year. We need to get up to keep some of the highly talented young players and I think we need a loan striker to cover Wood's absences. I would not have minded seeing Futacs yesterday but I have to rely on Nigel to know how good a player he is and therefore not to go with him. Potentially I think this is a better squad than Martin O'Neill's. The signings since Nigel came back have been fabulous.

Completely agree with this. Even if it turns out that Wood is only out a short time, i would still like us to bring in another striker as cover for wood or Nugent.

I don`t have any confidence in Vardy or Waggy doing the buisness.

They have had plenty of chances already and come up short.

[colsterfox]

Two weeks ago at Huddersfield in the cup, the whole place was lifted when Wood and Nugent came on as a double substitution. That tells you all you need to know about our attack without these two. I too do not understand the Futacs thing but that's Pearson for you. I cannot for the life of me understand why Danns is not in our midfield, he was top man when he got his centre midfield role back last year. I remember particularly at Pride Park where he ran the show. We missed James yesterday who is a must for us in a four man midfield. Yesterday I hope was a blip, lost count of the times I've come back away matches at Peterborough, Watford and the likes season after season with a defeat or a solitary point.

[foxaholic]

You didn't see his pull back yesterday leaving Waggy with an open goal from inside the 6 yard box then?

Guess the smoke was in your eyes

agreed the best run of the game a shocking miss

[morris1234]

I've said it before , ill say it again.

Biggest misconception with our fans is that they think teams are in this league , solely , for us to beat.

Just because Peterborough are bottom doesn't give us the right to beat them, that right is won in the 90 minutes. END OF. None of this shoulda coulda bollox.

We just weren't good enough yesterday. That's all that needs to be said for me.

[Essington blue]

I've said it before , ill say it again.

Biggest misconception with our fans is that they think teams are in this league , solely , for us to beat.

Just because Peterborough are bottom doesn't give us the right to beat them, that right is won in the 90 minutes. END OF. None of this shoulda coulda bollox.

We just weren't good enough yesterday. That's all that needs to be said for me.

Spot on Morris, so our managers job is to make sure we are set up with the best chance to beat the opposition. With the player's we had available yesterday, he did not do this!

[morris1234]

Spot on Morris, so our managers job is to make sure we are set up with the best chance to beat the opposition. With the player's we had available yesterday, he did not do this!

Okay then who would you have played?

[Essington blue]

Okay then who would you have played?

On another thread!! But it would have been 4-5-1

Marshall. Dd. James. Dyer( I suppose) "should be schullup"

Knock

Nugent