Coming of Age | George Nevett’s strong start to the season

George Nevett is the UpThePoshcast Player of the Month for August, and has impressed in his four league starts so far.

Photo Credit : Joe Dent / Peterborough United

The now 19-year-old seemed out of his depth in his first year at Posh, however looks a completely different player now. 

I have pinpointed three factors that are influencing his improvement.

1. Confidence  

Nevett has great technical attributes, and has a unique ability to carry the ball out of defence. 

Last campaign, the young centre-back seemed apprehensive to fully harness this, scared of making costly errors. 

This season however, he has been fearless in getting the best out of his ability, allowing himself to be pressed before bypassing opponents with ease. 

This is evident in his dribbling success rate, which has gone from 50% to 71%. It is his decisiveness that is motivating this. 

It is unsurprising that Nevett’s confidence is slowly improving. He is a young player, and was enduring his first experience of EFL football. 

Now, he looks much less risk adverse, and is very accomplished on the ball as a result. 

2. Using his body

One of Nevett’s primary issues last season was the physical side of the game. He was lightweight and so glaringly lacking in pace, resulting in regularly being bullied. 

It is clear that he has put on some muscle, which is clearly helping in duels against physical strikers, but his flaws still exist. 

Nevett has been taught how to stop his lack of pace being an issue. 

Many great central defenders were slow, and Nevett has now started giving himself the space to catch up where needs be, as well as using his body well to avoid foot races. 

Tom Lees has reportedly been a positive influence in this regard, a very experienced player in the twilight of his career, who has also had to learn how to deal with reducing speed. 

Nevett still has a slight penchant for getting ran in behind, but this has happened less frequently so far this campaign.

3. Position and partners 

It is important to note that Nevett has played with better partners this season. 

I think that even Ronnie Edwards would have come unstuck if consistently played next to Wallin or Fernandez. 

This season, Posh have recruited well in the centre of defence. Particularly against Huddersfield, the back line looked much more composed with the experienced Lees and O’Connor either side of Nevett. 

Playing next to steadier hands is having a clear influence on Nevett’s ability to take risks and make the correct decisions. 

Nevett played in the centre of a back three against Huddersfield in his best ever Posh performance. 

This role looked very well suited for him, as it afforded him the ability to step into central midfield and dictate build-up play excellently. 

This is a role that I think he will continue in for the foreseeable future, and I am excited to see him develop even further.