Bring Back The Bounce

The honeymoon period is well and truly over.

Photo Credit : Joe Dent / Peterborough United

The memories of wildly celebrating ten goals over three games have faded, and reality has hit us hard.

Those few matches where we thought we were racing towards promotion were brilliant, but it’s clear that was nothing more than a new manager bounce.

Falling flat

A clumsy performance against Stevenage, followed by a nervous game against Doncaster, leaves us firmly stuck in the relegation zone with teams above starting to pull away.

We don’t even have the Vertu Trophy cup run now that Swindon have disposed of us all too easily. 

I have faith in Luke Williams, but we desperately need to find a way to recapture that early form under him.

It won’t be easy.

Williams wants to play a formation that requires wingers, and we have one injured, one being phased back in, and one that should never play for us again. 

We can't wait for the transfer window to open

There are still 18 points up for grabs this year, and there’s no guarantee we have deep enough pockets for another raid in the transfer market.

Here’s three things Williams can do right now to get our season back on track.

1. Keep it simple

When Williams took charge, he stripped back all the complexity of Darren Ferguson’s patterns of play and boiled it down to “get as many crosses into the box as possible.”

Alex Bass was happy to distribute long; full-backs used their pace to move up the pitch; wingers were ready to collect and get the ball into the box; and forwards pressed defences hard.

It was breathless, direct and exciting football that rewarded us with goals.

Now that Williams has had more time on the training ground, he’s started to drip-feed his philosophy into the squad and introduce his own patterns of play.

We now see players arguing over who is taking a free kick, throw-ins taking longer, and more complexity in the build-up.

Players look out of ideas on the ball and all too often kill attacking moves by passing backwards. 

The result is that we lose possession, stop pressing and end up being pushed back too often.

2. Fix deadball routines

Williams is a big fan of short corners.

At Notts County, his approach was statistically successful: the team took 77% of their corners short, resulting in a shot on target in 25% of those short corners.

However, it’s not working at Posh.

Against Doncaster, we saw multiple short corners, and almost all of them ended with us losing possession.

The players looked hesitant, the supporting runs weren’t there, and the receiving player was often isolated with his back to the goal.

Short corners work when you have:

• Players are comfortable receiving under pressure

• Runners pulling markers away

• A clear second-phase plan

Right now, Posh lack the technical ability and confidence Notts County had under Williams.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but when you’re behind late on, and you finally win a corner, you don’t overthink it, you deliver a dangerous inswinger and let your forwards attack it.

Likewise, I see us losing possession too often from free kicks.

We had a free kick near the edge of the box against Doncaster, managed to give the ball away, and it was only Bass’s quick actions that denied Billy Sharp a goal.

Let's go back to faster, simpler routines.

3. Have a Plan B

It didn’t take long for teams to figure us out.

We had some element of surprise in those first few games, which allowed us to run rampant.

It’s clear that the way to stop us now is to press our wingers hard, double up on Kyrell Lisbie and kick Jimmy-Jay Morgan about.

Both Stevenage and Doncaster kept us contained and limited us to frustrated half-chances outside the area.

When it's clear that we’re restricted in how we want to play, that’s when you need to switch things up to try and unlock a team.

Ferguson used to switch wingers and full-backs to allow them to invert their attacks, which had limited success.

We need a formation we can switch to, such as a 4-3-3, to give us an extra midfielder to play through pressure and let wingers stay wider to use the width to stretch defenders, or a 4-4-2 to get two strikers working together. 

Having another option to change the game is key to unlocking stubborn defences and giving opposition managers something to think about.

A mountain to climb

This won’t be fixed overnight, and nobody should pretend otherwise.

Williams is trying to rebuild confidence and reshape a playing identity, while doing so with a squad missing key pieces in crucial areas.

But there’s quality here, and there’s time for Posh to steady themselves before the window opens.

If Williams can strip things back, get the basics right, and squeeze every drop out of the players he does have available, we will pick up valuable points.

The early bounce showed what this team is capable of; now comes the hard part of turning flashes into something long-lasting.

And if there’s one thing Posh fans know, it’s that form can turn quickly, for better or worse.

Let’s hope this year ends the right way.