John Mousinho previews Portsmouth clash with Millwall

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss addresses the media ahead of the Carabao Cup match against Millwall.

Transcript

00:00So Jon, obviously looking ahead now to Millwall in the Carabao Cup, how do you approach team

00:05selection?

00:06Well, whatever side we put out, I think we want to be as strong as we possibly can so

00:11we're going to put a strong side out.

00:13I think that in terms of where we are with the team and the squad, we'll have to look

00:16at where the areas are that we think we might need to rest certain players and just really

00:23take into account everything over the weekend as well with the fact that we travelled up

00:26to Leeds and the fact that we've got another big game at the weekend against Luton.

00:30So we want to pay massive respect to the League Cup and make sure that we do put out a strong

00:35side and also there's going to be a lot of fans that have paid good money to come and

00:37see us so we need to make sure we're competitive but we need to balance things out as well

00:41and make sure that we are sensible enough to stay focused on the League.

00:44Obviously you've got a few injuries, can you rotate the side entirely for this game?

00:49No not entirely, we had nine players on the bench and we had 20 fit players at the weekend

00:53that we were going into the Leeds game with so yeah it wouldn't be possible for us to

00:58entirely rotate the side and we wouldn't do that anyway.

01:01I think it's going to be a couple of positions we do decide to change in and change out but

01:04apart from that I think there won't be too many changes for the weekend.

01:08With the squad it is, can you change centre-halfs and left-backs as well?

01:13I think if you look at it at the moment, no we can't do that.

01:16We went into the weekend with one left-back and two centre-backs.

01:20If we needed to change any of that at the weekend we would have had to shuffle the pack

01:24in terms of positions and move a few things around here and there which I think players

01:28that we have in the squad would be more capable of doing that so it's something we'll look

01:30at for team selection tomorrow night but at the minute we're absolutely fine with just

01:35certain positions we're slightly short in and yes centre-backs are one of them.

01:38In terms of Ante Scully who wasn't in the squad at the weekend, will he be considered for this match?

01:42Yeah everybody will be considered so we'll have a look at that, have a look at what the

01:45squad looks like and then go from there.

01:47What's the situation with him at the moment?

01:49Nothing's changed here, same as it was this time last week.

01:52Has there been any interest in him at all?

01:54Nothing concrete at the minute so Anthony's just training with us as normal and yeah no change there.

01:59So he's still in good terms, he's not banished into the reserves?

02:01No no he still trains with us every day and again today out with the training group today

02:06and yeah no problems whatsoever.

02:08Any fresh injuries at all?

02:10No fresh injuries from the weekend so we had a clean bill of health from the weekend, it was a tough

02:13game, a tough bruising encounter.

02:15The lads that you saw go down I think Andre and Jordan they were both cramping so it was

02:22just both sort of calf cramps rather than actually anything to do with any muscular injury.

02:28I think Paddy as well was struggling towards the back end, that's where we decided to make

02:31the change and bring Matt on so yeah no new injuries from that standpoint.

02:34You mentioned Paddy, he worked incredibly hard didn't he?

02:37Yeah he did, he put in an unbelievable amount of effort and when we did the post-match this

02:41morning we highlighted a lot of the pressing that Paddy did.

02:45I think he did it very very well off both wings and yeah he was very very solid I thought

02:51for us so really pleasing aspects of that game from Paddy and from the rest of the boys

02:55to be honest.

02:56I thought the output physically was incredible and we've seen the stats after the game and

03:01really really high in terms of what we've been producing even last season so we're

03:05really pleased with the step up there.

03:07It's one of those games where it's difficult for him to attack isn't it?

03:10We've still got a great ball in at the second half I remember.

03:13Yeah and we've got to be better in little moments like that.

03:15Paddy picked the ball up second phase from a set-piece and then he put the ball in with

03:19his right foot and we just didn't quite attack the back post and those are the sort of moments

03:22when we don't get a huge amount in those sort of games that we have to make sure that we're

03:25on the end of, particularly with some of the attacking prowess that we have with Centre

03:30Haas coming up, with Conor Ogilvie coming up.

03:33Those sort of moments, we may not get a huge amount of chances when we go away to Wellham

03:37Road so we've got to make sure that we try and take them and try and take advantage of

03:40those opportunities.

03:41Is it going to be a lot more luck from him this season, he has to defend and less time

03:46attacking?

03:47I don't think that's going to be the way that we've set up but certainly at the weekend

03:51that's the way the game panned out.

03:53It's not our intention to play every week the same as we did against Leeds.

03:57I think it was exceptional against an exceptional side so if we can get our attacking players

04:02on the ball a bit more than we did at the weekend then that would be the plan.

04:04Are you building with Liam Cooper as anything in that?

04:06No, he's a fantastic player with massive Premier League pedigree but as far as we're concerned

04:11that's not one that we've been looking at at all.

04:14In terms of Centre Haas, you're looking for a Centre Haas and obviously there's things

04:18going on behind the scenes, we know what's going on behind the scenes.

04:20Have you got close to signing anyone in that position yet?

04:23Yeah, we've got plenty that we are still in discussion with towards the back end but again

04:28it's been really slow with the way that the market's gone and I keep saying this

04:32but there's plenty of options that we have from teams who are just not ready to release

04:39players yet, whether that's on loan or whether that's permanently and a lot of that I think

04:42will come to fruition at the back end of August so we're just going to have to be patient

04:45on that and for us it is about waiting for the right one to come along rather than rushing

04:48anything because if we make sure that we get through these games in August and get through

04:53these four league games that we have, that we're in a really good strong position by

04:56the time we hit that international break and by the time the transfer window does close

05:00that we get the squad that we want rather than the squad we rushed in to get in.

05:03Have you missed out on any Centre Haas yet?

05:05No we haven't, no.

05:06No, just the ones that we're looking at haven't become available.

05:09And in terms of injuries, Farah Rao, Murphy, Salah, are they not going to be back on the

05:14weekend at all?

05:15Quite possibly for the weekend, I don't think that either of those will be back.

05:20We may be touch and go on Cassini, apart from that there will be no change at the weekend.

05:25Tom McIntyre?

05:26Yeah, Tom McIntyre is still not quite right for the weekend so we possibly will be looking

05:30to get him back for the Middlesbrough game.

05:33Cheers Neil.

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