JOHN Coleman says the ability to play a number of different styles and systems could be key for Stanley this season as they prepare to kick off their League One campaign at home to Peterborough United tomorrow.

The Reds have built up a reputation of playing attractive, fast-flowing football but Coleman is always looking at different ways to improve his side and keep their opponents guessing.

Stanley have operated with a defensive three for the first two games of the season – a penalty shoot-out defeat to Burton in the Carabao Cup and a 7-0 win over Leeds United U21s in the EFL Trophy – and Coleman said that any team must be capable of playing a number of different styles.

“I think you’ve always got to be fluid and you’ve got to be able to change it, you’ve got to have three or four systems that you can play,” he told the club website.

“We’ve always had a style of football here, we’ve tried to play high tempo, high energy, good passing and attractive football.

“Certainly at home we’ve got to try and stamp our authority on games and get our style being the dominant style.

“The best style of football is when you’re playing in and around the other team’s box.”

Loanee Tariq Uwakwe grabbed a debut hat-trick during Tuesday night’s 7-0 win, and the 20-year-old has already made a good impression on Coleman.

“Obviously you want to score goals, whether you’re in training or playing games.

“Tariq’s a confidence player but he’s certainly impressed me in the short time I’ve seen him play.”

Despite the impressive midweek win, Coleman isn’t taking too much out of the victory against a young Leeds side.

“We’re not reading anything at all into it, but it’s nice for your forwards to score and we’re more concerned about getting the patterns of play going.

“We do a lot of training against our youth team as well so it’s no different to that really.”

Peterborough are one of the favourites for the League One title, but Coleman hopes it’s his side that can apply themselves to the game on Saturday afternoon.

“They are one of the favourites but that goes out of the window when it’s 11 versus 11, “ he said they’ve spent a lot of money in the summer, their marquee signings being Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sammie Szmodics.

“On a Saturday when it’s three o’clock, it’s 11 versus 11 and it’s the ones who apply themselves better and hopefully we can apply ourselves well on Saturday.”

Colby Bishop and Joe Pritchard both missed the Leeds game but the Reds boss is happy to see his full squad slowly returning to fitness.

“We’re slowly getting the injured players back into the frame now, Colby’s going to train this week so we won’t have too many long-term injuries,” he said.

“Colby hasn’t trained for a month really.

“We’re hoping Joe’s going to train this week so we’ll know more today and tomorrow I suppose.

“It’s just a case of trying to get ourselves into optimum condition for Saturday, we’re training on the pitch to try and get a feel for it.”