Peterborough United promotion winner is backing Fergie to turn the club's form around

Posh have no game this weekend because of international call-ups for forward Jimmy-Jay Morgan, midfielder Matthew Garbett and central defender David Okagbue and Zakuani believes a break has come at the perfect time for his old team and their beleaguered boss.

Zakuani won two promotions with Posh and Ferguson in 2008-09 and 2010-11. He has not lost faith in the club’s most successful manager as Posh approach games against fellow strugglers Burton and then Blackpool.

Posh are currently bottom of League One with just seven points from 11 matches. They are just two points from safety ahead of this Saturday’s fixtures.

"I’m not overly-concerned as the squad is much better now than at the start of the season,” Zakuani said during his latest stint as a Posh summariser with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire following the 2-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers last Saturday.

"But the break has come at a good time for Darren and the club. I expect him to use these two weeks between games to get everyone up to full fitness and to ensure the players know exactly what he wants from them. It’s important the players now gel.

"The next two games are absolutely massive though. They are potentially must-win games, or at least games we must get 4 points from. If we do that we can start looking up the table.

"But the longer this run goes on the bigger the problem becomes and if we don’t do well in the next two matches it will become very difficult to defend the players and questions will be asked about Darren. He knows that and so does everyone at the club, but I expect him to have the answers.

“There was not too much in the game at Bolton, but we must find a way of grinding results from games that are close.”