Pompey boss John Mousinho's Blackpool preview

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho's Blackpool preview, as Blues boss discusses the EFL League One trip to Bloomfield Road and all the Fratton talking points.

Transcript

00:00 John, obviously Blackpool away this weekend and it was a tough game wasn't it for Aton

00:05 Parker in this season. Wasn't quite a 4-0 though was it really?

00:09 No I think we deserved to lose the game, I thought Blackpool were better than us on the

00:14 day and yeah probably not quite a 4-0. We had a couple of really good chances early

00:19 on but then Blackpool took hold of the game and we went in 1-0 down at half time and to

00:23 be honest I think the game did change on the second goal and I thought it was a really

00:27 strange decision at the time when the lad who was clearly offside ended up poking the

00:31 ball in the back of the net from the shot and the referee and the linesman had no interest

00:35 in even looking at it. I know we spoke about it at the time but I thought that really changed

00:40 the game alongside the red card and to be honest no issue with the result, I thought

00:44 Blackpool were much better than us but yeah the game changed in a couple of small moments

00:48 but we know we've got a tough task ahead of us.

00:50 I mean Blackpool obviously looked excellent that day, they've not quite maintained that

00:53 this season have they?

00:54 I think they have in patches so maybe not throughout the entirety of the season but

00:59 certainly on their day they're an excellent side. I think Bolton went to Bloomfield Road

01:04 a couple of weeks ago and lost 4-1. Obviously Blackpool I think have then followed that

01:08 up, they'd be 1-0 away at the weekend and there's plenty of talent on the side with

01:12 a head coach that was extremely experienced at this level with taking Blackpool out of

01:17 Ligue 1 as well so a really, really decent outfit I think and lifted with players that

01:22 I think have played at this level and a level above so they've got plenty that are going

01:26 to make them a strong side.

01:27 Do you think on their day they can be a huge threat?

01:29 I think any side in the league can, there's no side this year that we've faced that we

01:34 don't think on their day they're a real threat and Blackpool are no exception, I think they're

01:38 a threat on their day, they've got some really good players so we've got to make sure we

01:41 prepare like we do for any game and do everything we possibly can to try and go and get a result.

01:46 What did you make of the result last night between Barnsley and Bolton?

01:49 I think it was one of those where it was difficult to properly sum up what the best result for

01:57 Portsmouth was so I think it was just a good one to watch, I thought it was a really good

02:01 game particularly towards the back end, it was very, very exciting the way the game finished

02:05 and I think without too much skin in the game I thought it was just a really good watch.

02:10 Whatever happened, there was one of those sides were going to pick up points, one of

02:13 the sides were going to drop points and it was one of those I think, it was much more

02:17 obvious I think last week when we were looking at results in terms of them coming in, a bit

02:21 less obvious last night and nothing we could affect so it was just one of those we just

02:24 ticked off and got on with it.

02:26 Obviously you picked Miles Perth-Harris ahead of Owen Moxon in midfield last week, what's

02:31 the situation for this game between the pair of them?

02:33 I think both competing for the same spots across the middle of the park, Marlon, Miles

02:39 and obviously Owen and it wasn't the case of Owen losing his place in the side or being

02:45 dropped, it was just the fact that we thought for that game it would suit Miles and we've

02:49 done that throughout the season with different positions and we definitely thought that was

02:53 the right thing to do in terms of the game against Oxford.

02:56 So we've looked at things this week in terms of how we think Blackpool will set up and

03:01 we haven't quite made a decision on team selection yet but certainly both of them and Marlon

03:05 have either of those two positions.

03:06 Was that selection influenced perhaps by Owen's yellow card situation?

03:11 It wasn't really, we were aware of it but it wasn't something that we thought we would

03:15 actually change the team too much because of that.

03:19 I thought if we 100% wanted to go with Owen at the weekend we would have played him.

03:23 We've just got good options at the moment and I think whoever we bring in to the side

03:28 they've got different strengths and obviously that was something that we saw would be beneficial

03:32 to the side at the weekend.

03:33 Have you seen enough from Miles in that position to consider him again then?

03:37 Yeah I think so, I think I said after the game we probably saw the best of Miles at

03:41 the weekend and then plenty of areas that he can improve upon.

03:46 When he puts his physicality and his technical ability on the game there's very few that

03:50 can really live with him and also on the flip side I think we've got plenty of work to do

03:53 which we've been doing this week so yeah definitely a position we can see Miles operate in.

03:57 There was a lot of love for Joe Rafty on Saturday, a lot of people's man of the match, I don't

04:01 know if you agree with that at all?

04:03 Well I think on the day he came up against Josh Murphy he was a winger in really, really

04:08 good form and certainly from my time having played with Josh I know that on his day I

04:13 think he's a Premier League winger, there's no doubt about that in my mind so I'm really

04:17 pleased with the way Joe Rafty went about his business.

04:18 I thought he was constantly at him, I thought he put a lot of pressure on Josh, I thought

04:22 he dealt with the physical battle really well and defended very, very well for a large period

04:27 of the game and also Joe does what he does as well which is give us a huge amount going

04:31 forward and a huge amount of energy so yeah really pleased with Joe's performance and

04:35 I thought that was close to his best at the weekend.

04:37 I mean both your regular fullbacks are unsung really aren't they because they're just so

04:41 reliable and solid aren't they?

04:44 Yeah very, very solid players and I think they give us a lot going forward as well but

04:48 certainly defensively which is the starting position I think for a fullback in terms of

04:52 what you want from them defensively they give us a lot and they're very reliable.

04:58 In terms of output as well I think Conor's had a freak season in terms of the injuries

05:03 that he's picked up because he started 44 league games for us last year which is just

05:07 normal for him but yeah two very, very steady players and they've got plenty to offer both

05:11 defensively and going forward as well.

05:13 Do you prefer that in fullbacks rather than just flying, bombing on?

05:16 I think it's good to have a bit of a mixture so when we looked at building the squad over

05:19 the summer we didn't want to have two fullbacks in the same position that would be carbon

05:25 copies of each other so I think we have really good balance across the four with Conor over

05:29 with Jack Sparks on the left and then Saxon Watson and Gerry Rafty on the right and I

05:33 think in both pairs we've got areas that we need to work on with all of those players

05:37 but the biggest positive for me is that all of those want to take on board everything

05:41 that we've tried to say to them, they do want to improve as players and that's a really

05:44 good spot to be in.

05:45 The current pair are effectively good defenders to begin with aren't they?

05:50 Yeah and I think that's probably certainly with Joe Rafty and his background that was

05:56 probably the primary focus as a fullback coming up through where we came from, particularly

06:02 with Rochdale and then obviously moving to Preston and to be fair Conor Overby coming

06:05 through the academy system may be one of those rare ones who came out of the academy system

06:09 as a really excellent defender and can play left back and play centre half and one of

06:13 the things you probably noticed particularly this season as well is we do want both of

06:17 them to get forward because I think they're both technically really good and we want them

06:20 to build from the back as well and help to do that and we trust them implicitly in doing

06:24 all of those things so certainly as a bedrock I think of their success, they're really good

06:29 defenders, really reliable defenders but certainly we've got a huge amount going forward as well.

06:32 Do you think your excellent defensive record, that's influenced by having two fullbacks

06:36 who are defenders effectively?

06:37 Yeah I think it's influenced by everything and the way that we want to press and the

06:41 way that we want to play as a whole but yeah certainly those two have had a huge impact.

06:45 Any injuries at all ahead of this game?

06:48 No, no injuries, we've got a clean bit of health from the weekend which is obviously

06:51 a positive and then Zac's on to return to full training today, modified session Monday,

06:55 modified session Tuesday but full training session today, he'll train with us fully again

06:59 Friday and most likely be available for selection at the weekend.

07:02 Is that injury on his to ease him slightly then?

07:04 It is although in terms of imminent returns, Zac's obviously the one that's come back,

07:10 I think if you look at post-Peterborough then hopefully we're going to have Tino,

07:16 Tom Lowry and Ben Stevenson training with us although with the long-term nature of their

07:20 injuries nothing imminent in terms of an actual return so yeah we've got to make sure we keep

07:26 it steady but certainly the injury room is clearing slightly but yeah I think every time

07:31 we've done that this season we've probably managed to go and add a couple more so we've

07:34 got to make sure that we stay alert on everything, stay positive with a strong squad and at the

07:40 minute I think we're the biggest plus I think in terms of the way that we've built the squad

07:44 and the way that we did in January is that even at the weekend we left Anthony Scully

07:48 and Gavin White and Dee Evans out of the squad, Lee's not quite ready but I think that shows

07:54 that we're in a really strong position.

07:55 Thank you.

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