Peterborough United boss admits selecting a forward line to play Lincoln City is tough
Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson admits his toughest selection decisions for the visit of in-form Lincoln City to the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday involve his forward players.
Apart from long-term injury victims Rio Adebisi and Ryan De Havilland Posh have a fully fit squad to choose from for the game against the Imps.
The players on international duty in the last fortnight – Hector Kyprianou, Sam Curtis and George Nevitt – have all returned for club duty in decent shape. Kyprianou and Curtis look set to start tomorrow, while on-loan Manchester City centre-back Jadel Katongo is fancied to start for the first time in his second spell at Posh, in place of either Oscar Wallin or Emmanuel Fernandez.
And competition for places up front is particularly fierce. Chris Conn-Clarke is battling Joel Randall for the number 10 slot, while Malik Mothersille and Ricky-Jade Jones have now been joined by goal-scoring debutant Bradley Ihionvien as strong contenders to play at centre-forward. Cian Hayes will have his eye on the wide places currently occupied by Kwame Poku and Abraham Odoh.
Posh will have a fourth centre forward at the club in January when Swedish striker Gustav Lindgren will join the club after a £500k raid on IF Degerfors.
The toughest decisions are definitely at the top end of the pitch,” Ferguson admitted during a pre-match interview on the Posh Plus service. “For instance we now have two very good number 10s in Joel Randall and Chris Conn-Clarke. They play the role very differently. Joel knows the position, how we play it, better right now, but Chris is a great finisher and he set up a goal when he played there at Gillingham in the Trophy. It could well depend on how the opposition set up to see which is more suitable.
"And Bradley couldn’t have done a lot more in that Gillingham to stake his claim for a start so I have decisions to make. We will get Gustav over here in mid-October when there is an international break to meet the players and the staff, but he will need a break when the Swedish season ends on November 9 as he’s been on the go since March.
"We almost got Gustav here before the transfer window closed, but the Swedish window closed a week earlier and they didn’t have time to find a replacement. We believe he will do well here and it’s good we have a connection with a club who also sold Oscar Wallin to us.
"All our internationals have reported back with no issues. Sam played two lots of 90 minutes, but he feels fine and there are now issues with Hector after two 45 minute appearances or with George who did a 90 minutes and a 20 minutes.
"It’s important we kick on now. We have two home games coming up and knowing where we have gone wrong is half the battle so I expect us to be more aggressive and on the front foot to make sure we get the first goal.”