The opening day of a third tier season in Cardiff for the first time since 2002 sees them pitted against Darren Ferguson’s Posh, could be there be a more archetypal League One challenge to begin with?

📂 Cardiff v Peterborough Cheat Sheet

📈 Cardiff v Peterborough Form & Tactics

This is Brian Barry-Murphy’s first senior head coach role since a spell at Rochdale in the third tier between 2019-2021. Since then he has spent his time in the elite player development environment at Manchester City, where the predominant tactical approach has mirrored that of Pep Guardiola.

Chris Davies implemented a possession-heavy system in going from Tottenham to Birmingham and dominating the third tier last season, setting a points record infact. We can expect Barry-Murphy’s team to want to dominate the ball and press high.

Cardiff’s pre-season friendlies were reported to be playing a 3-3-3-1, while it looked like a 4-4-2 out of possession and a 4-2-3-1 shape in possession, with Rubin Colwill being the key man just off the front.

In many ways, we know what to expect from a Peterborough United team managed by Darren Ferguson.

One of the pre-requisites for this team is to play attractive, attacking football. This is a method passed down from the top, as owner Darragh McAnthony knows that this style helps to attract buyers for their continuing line of young attacking talent, the sales of whom are used primarily to keep the costs of running the club manageable.

The formation does change with time and trends, but I am expecting a 4-2-3-1 shape to be the default, at least to begin the season. There are a lack of left-footed centre backs in the squad to make a three at the back formation a viable option, and Posh prefer to have exciting wide attackers in their team.

🏁 Ref Watch

Ben Speedie

• Speedie has 70 matches under his belt at this level, so he is fairly experienced at this stage

• Last season he averaged 3.25 yellow cards per match in his 20 League One matches, a below average number, this makes yellow card bets less attractive

📊 Cardiff v Peterborough Key Stats

• Relegated teams from the Championship playing at home on opening day in League One have won four, drawn one and lost 1oneover the last five seasons.

• Despite being ranked 20th for expected goals for (xGF) in the Championship last season, Cardiff ranked 6th for shots on target per match, which suggests their shooting from poor positions retained some accuracy.

• Last season, Cardiff conceded the 2nd-highest number of goals in the league, but were 6th bottom for expected goals against (xGA), which suggests that they weren’t quite as bad defensively as it may have looked.

• Peterborough have spent nine of the last 10 seasons in the third tier, last season was their first bottom half finish in the third tier since 2015/16.

• Peterborough begin this season without all three of the players who scored double-figure goals for them last term - Kwame Poku (QPR), Malik Mothersille (Stockport) and Ricky-Jade Jones (St Pauli).

• Posh finished last season having conceded the 2nd-highest number of goals in the league, they had the 3rd-worst xGA figure.

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For additional value, check out these Cardiff v Peterborough Betting Stats and our Paddy Power Beat The Drop Predictions.

* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.