MARK Cooper managed his first Posh match on Saturday. It was a tough debut at a level three divisions higher than he'd ever managed before.
Alan Swann gives his verdict on Cooper's input to a
1-0 defeat at Sheffield United...
TEAM SELECTIONCooper handed a shock debu
t to Scott Griffiths at left-back and restored Gaby Zakuani to the back four at the expense of accident-prone centre-back Craig Morgan.
It would have been easy for Cooper to hide behind an experienced side, but Griffiths and teenage central defender Ryan Bennett both justified their selections.
There were no surprises further forward with Toumani Diagouraga preferred in the centre of midfield to Dean Keates who wasn't even on the substitutes' bench.
Cooper explained: "I picked Bennett ahead of Morgan based on what I'd seen on the dvds and I've seen Griffiths a lot at Dagenham and I like him."
Verdict: Difficult to argue against anything he did. Those recalled to the side did well, as did the debutant and those he kept faith with.
FORMATIONIt was a basic 4-4-2 with George Boyd and Chris Whelpdale on the flanks with the former floating around a lot less than normal.
As promised the Posh full-backs were employed as out-and-out defenders.
Verdict: Keeping things sinple is always a good idea when dealing with footballers.
PRE MATCH TACTICSPosh defended with two banks of four and set out to keep things tight for half-an-hour, but no opportunity to break forward in numbers was lost.
Defensively few chances were taken and there was far less patient passing across the back four , but there was also little evidence of the long ball game which Cooper became associated with at Kettering.
The midfielders generally kept possession very well with Lee Frecklington in particular enjoying his most prominent Posh match.
Verdict: Cooper knows he must tighten up at the back, while giving his front players licence to create havoc. This was an encouraging start.
IN GAME TACTICSTo be honest there was little tinkering required as Posh generally more than matched their opponents.
He did order George Boyd and Chris Whelpdale to switch flanks after an hour, but he then withdrew the latter to unleash Shaun Batt.
Batt is always worth throwing on as a substitute when his unpredictably can be an advantage. Josh Simpson was also given a debut, but too late to make an impact.
Cooper sent big Ryan Bennett forward for the final minutes, but again it was too late to make a difference.
Verdict: Not a lot else he could have tried. There are no game-breakers on the bench.
MOTIVATIONGeorge Boyd insisted the manager had impressed the players in his first week with his honesty and clarity of thinking.
The players looked up for the match and didn't let their heads drop even after falling behind and after missing a penalty.
Verdict: Cooper certainly received a decent hard-working shift from the entire team.
OVERALLCooper doesn't have a lot of time to galvanise the team, but this was definitely an encouraging start. It was a massive defensive improvement on the team's previous outing without appearing to dilute the offensive threat.
