- 5 months ago
Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his reaction to the 0-0 draw with Hawks, triallist latest and transfer lowdown.
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00:00Here with Pompey boss John Massino.
00:02John, I dare say Hawks would have thought they should have come away with a pre-season win tonight.
00:07Would that be fair?
00:08I think with a penalty maybe, but I think overall on chance is a fairly even game.
00:13Not a huge amount created at either end.
00:15Yeah, maybe. I just don't think the result was important tonight.
00:18There were far more pressing things that we wanted to get out of the game.
00:21And particularly towards the back end of the game to end with such a young team.
00:24We were really happy with it.
00:25Exactly that. The last spot was a good half an hour.
00:27Every outfield player, an academy youngster and some good education for them.
00:32Yeah, not just academy youngsters.
00:33We had four under-sixteens playing.
00:35So their first ever taste of anything that was close to men's football.
00:39We had quite a few first years on the pitch as well.
00:42Mixed in with some second years, but an entire outfield with the academy.
00:45I think that's a big depressing thing for me with the under-sixteens actually.
00:50I'm being called up quite late and not even having a training session with us.
00:53But I'm coming and playing and equipping themselves really well.
00:55So really, really pleased with that.
00:56And I think it's been an excellent lesson for some of the young lads.
01:00To come and compete with a really good side at this level.
01:03And one that's got a few ex-pros and a few players that are decent enough, certainly at the level.
01:09So yeah, I think a really good run-out.
01:10I'll pick one out that I've seen a couple of times now in pre-season.
01:13Young Fraser Thomas.
01:14He's got a couple of glimpses there.
01:15Nice driving run with soccer.
01:16Saw three or four players and he looks confident at the level.
01:19Yeah, I thought Fraser was great.
01:20Fraser's been with us now for a couple of the pre-season games.
01:24He played against Crawley.
01:28So he came in against Crawley.
01:29I think he played against Farnborough as well.
01:32And possibly Woken, if I'm not mistaken.
01:34But I might be wrong about that.
01:35Yeah.
01:35But yeah, I think Fraser's done really well.
01:37You saw he can pick the ball up and drive.
01:39He can drop in there and connect as well with the back four.
01:41He's not naturally a six.
01:42Probably more of an eight or a ten.
01:44And likes running with the ball higher up.
01:45And for those of you guys that were at Farnborough, you would have seen that.
01:48And yeah, I think Fraser definitely is a first-year as well.
01:51He's shown some real signs of promise.
01:53And I guess the ultimate aim for them is to progress and affect the senior set-up.
01:57Yeah, and I think it's a good one for them.
01:59And there's evidence from last year.
02:01This was probably the game this time last year that Harry caught the eye as a player in the academy.
02:06He's a young 17-year-old and ended up getting his contracts off the back of this and a few other performances last year.
02:13So, yeah, these are really important games when the youngsters get a chance to come and show us what they're all about in front of a decent crowd and at a good level.
02:19I think it's a great opportunity for them.
02:21And in terms of your senior players, are Bain Bull out there a start there in 45 minutes?
02:25I think it was out of planned withdrawal at half-time.
02:27Yeah, that was planned.
02:28Ruben Swans was planned as well.
02:29Ivan has just played a handful of minutes, I think half an hour at the weekend.
02:34So, that would have taken its toll as well.
02:36Ruben's been out with a couple of niggly injuries pre-season.
02:39So, we wanted to make sure we manage his minutes on the surface too.
02:42So, yeah, really pleased just to get them through the 45 and then, as planned at half-time, make the changes.
02:48And are Bain just putting games together back-to-back?
02:50These are all landmarks for him at the moment.
02:52Yeah, it was first of all about putting training sessions together back-to-back.
02:55He had a couple of issues earlier on in pre-season that we spoke about, but he's been training consistently now.
02:59Putting games together back-to-back, that's really important for him.
03:02And we've got to build on that, build on that as we get closer to the season.
03:06He said to me back in Slovakia that he wants to be in contention for the first game of the season.
03:09Is he on course for that?
03:11I think so.
03:12With 10 days to go, getting his first 45 under his belt, I think that puts you in half-decent stead.
03:18If you can build up and get a few more minutes before the end of the season, then, yeah, I don't see why not.
03:22And you touched on Ruben Swan there, his first action under his belt there.
03:27Against his former side there, how do you think he did?
03:29Yeah, I thought he showed some impressive signs, Ruben.
03:30And it's a big challenge for him to make sure that he shows those bursts of athleticism, the bursts of power that we see in the middle of the park.
03:36And then puts together the rest of it at the top end of the pitch as well, with probably tidying up on a few of the technical bits and a bit of the decision-making as well.
03:45But for Ruben, he's been out for a few weeks now.
03:49He hasn't really had a consistent pre-season.
03:51So, yeah, what we need to do is make sure we build him up.
03:53Very similar last year in terms of picking up a few niggly injuries.
03:55So making sure that we build Ruben up and we assess where he is probably in sort of seven or eight days' time.
04:02Yeah, I mean, being critical of him, probably one or two scruffy moments, but you can see something's there as a player.
04:07Would that be fair?
04:08Yeah, and it's difficult for these lads as well.
04:09We've played on grass pitches for the past five and a half weeks.
04:13We've not come off that, so this is the first taste that we've had of a different type of pitch.
04:16And I think if you're used to playing on it every day, it's very, very different to what you get if you've been used to, you know, the pre-season grass pitches.
04:24So that could definitely be a factor as well.
04:26A couple of times I definitely saw that in terms of touches and the technical aspects, which just weren't the player's fault.
04:30So, yeah, all of these things combine, I think, and Ruben getting back into it.
04:35I think, yeah, your observations there are definitely areas you can improve on.
04:38Paddy Lane's involved tonight.
04:40I remember speaking to you at the end of last season and going into the summer about Paddy and what your demands were for him coming into the season to really affect things.
04:47Do those challenges remain the case for Paddy?
04:49Yeah, I think, again, a really tough one for all of the players out there tonight.
04:54And so I thought that Paddy did really well under the circumstances.
04:57It's not necessarily a pitch where your wingers can get on the ball and drive away from people because of the fact the ball does get stuck in the surface.
05:04So it's difficult from that point of view.
05:06So for Paddy, it was about getting the minutes tonight and making sure that he came through that unscathed.
05:09So, yeah, the same challenges remain for all of the players, really.
05:12And Pad's no exception.
05:14We need to make sure that players push to get in the first team and impress as much as possible and the challenges there for all of them.
05:18Just generally on Paddy, then, do you think that he needs to know so that he can step up to championship level this season and really make an impact at the level?
05:25Yeah, he showed glimpses last year and, you know, I think after a start to the season that everybody struggled in,
05:32I don't think anybody could really look at the start to the season that we had and say that they deserved a place in the team or they were outstanding.
05:40Paddy then settled down and, to be honest, by the time he picked up that injury away at Blackburn,
05:44he'd been in the side relatively consistently over the past couple of months.
05:48He picked up his first goal against Swansea.
05:49I thought he looked a lot better, a lot fitter, coming back from a minor injury as well.
05:53So, I think definitely Pad's looking, or Pad should look at himself and think, you know, what can he produce when he does get to that level?
06:01And having been out, he's been out for a long time as well.
06:03That's a really important thing to think about with the nature of his injury.
06:07So, yeah, it's something that I think is a good challenge for Paddy.
06:10Players weren't involved tonight.
06:12Callum Lang, where's he now in terms of getting himself up to speed for the start of the season?
06:16Oh, Callum's fine. We wanted to just give him the 45 of the weekend.
06:21There was no way with a hamstring injury we were going to play him on the surface tonight.
06:24No, no, but I mean, in terms of building up for the season, do you think he's, you know, is he playing catch-up with a little bit?
06:29Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. He's 15 minutes behind everyone else, I'd say, in terms of playing time,
06:34because everybody consistently, I think, pretty much got 60 across the board at the weekend.
06:39Callum, we only ever wanted to do 45, so he's probably two or three days behind, but nothing to worry about.
06:44So, in terms of the first game of the season, you'd be confident in being in a good place?
06:49Well, unless we sell him, of course.
06:52Nice quip, John.
06:53No, yeah, I'm confident Callum would be fine for the first game of the season.
06:56OK, and now moving forward, obviously, you know, going into your home game this weekend,
07:00obviously that's a decent challenge against Peck's World as well, the Dutch side.
07:04Yeah, top-level Dutch side, and going back to Fratton, I think,
07:08is going to be pleasing for everyone, and it's one of these fixtures.
07:11We didn't have a home fixture last year because of the fact that the gantry was built,
07:13so the pitch just wasn't ready in time.
07:15We needed an away fixture for that opening weekend,
07:18and getting back at home is going to be exciting, I think, for everyone.
07:22I know we're going to have a really decent crowd for a pre-season friendly.
07:24We had a game a couple of years ago against Bristol City,
07:27that build-up before the last game of the season, which I think served us really well,
07:30and what we've been trying to do is sort of step up the intensity of games
07:33and step up the level of the opposition, which we did again at the weekend.
07:37So I think having a top-level side coming to Fratton Park is going to be a good challenge for us.
07:41Yeah, as a sort of mid-table, where are the busy side?
07:43Do they culturally kind of give you the right sort of challenges going into a championship?
07:47Yeah, they're going to be a side that wants to come over and dominate the ball and keep the ball,
07:51and they've got some top athletes in there as well.
07:54If we look at a lot of the championship sides this year in terms of the way they want to play,
07:57they're going to play in a similar way.
07:59They're going to try and get the ball down, they're going to try and move it,
08:01particularly in pre-season when the emphasis for a lot of sides is to split and play
08:05and to try and dominate possession, so I think it's a really good challenge for us
08:07when we go into the games coming in August and September.
08:11Certainly, we've seen that consistently last year.
08:13Ties do want to play from the back end, and they can be very, very difficult to press against,
08:17so I think it's a good challenge.
08:18Just a couple of other bits.
08:20Trialist-wise, Nathan Ferguson here and Volta,
08:23are you going to be arriving at a juncture shortly with him?
08:26I think so, yeah.
08:27What we wanted to do is build Nathan up, so first of all, injury-wise,
08:31he could play the minutes at the weekend and then get the minutes tonight as well,
08:34and that was important for us, so that's the first time Nathan's played anything
08:38over 45 minutes, I think, for a long, long time,
08:42so a really good step in the right direction for Nathan
08:45to get that 60, 65 minutes that he got tonight,
08:48and I think over the next few days, building into the weekend,
08:51and once we attack the league season next week, we'll make a decision on that.
08:55Would you expect a decision by the next fixture?
08:58Probably, yeah. I think that's probably fair,
09:01but it's been a case of not needing to rush anything,
09:04and it's a really beneficial one for both parties at the minute
09:07in terms of us having a play-around that we can play,
09:10having a play-around that's excellent in training and in games,
09:14and vice versa.
09:15At the very least, for Nathan, he's building up the fitness
09:18and building up a long bank of that training record without being injured.
09:21And Alfie Whiteman, is he here or not still?
09:24No, Alfie's no longer with us on trial.
09:26OK, was that in the last couple of days?
09:28Alfie hasn't been with us this week.
09:30OK, so again, that was probably what happens if a trial is mutually beneficial
09:34through pre-season.
09:35Absolutely fine.
09:36So, yeah, we'll be keeping a keen eye on to see where Alfie ends up.
09:39And we were looking to add a goalkeeper, weren't we, potentially?
09:42Yeah, I still think we need four goalkeepers,
09:44and we've spoken about the reasons for that,
09:46so it's probably not the number one priority for us at the minute,
09:50but we'll see where we are with that over the next sort of 10 days.
09:53It's not necessarily a brilliant market at the moment for that,
09:57but it is something for training purposes
09:59and to strengthen the goalkeeping department in general that we want to add.
10:02And I'll leave the last question,
10:03probably the one of the viewers all want to know about just a transfer update.
10:06I wasn't around the weekend.
10:07You were sort of fairly positive about action on that front,
10:09sort of moving the next couple of weeks?
10:12Yeah, it's been an interesting one this week.
10:16We've had Mark and Luke in the building now for what feels like quite a few days.
10:20Just have to wait on a couple of bits of paperwork
10:22before they're ready to actually play in games,
10:24just getting that international clearance first.
10:27It may have been, I think if we had that,
10:29we might have seen one or both of them feature tonight.
10:32Yeah.
10:32So, yeah, I think that was really positive for us.
10:35So we've got the four through the door.
10:37Yeah, there's still a bit of work to do,
10:39but the season's crept upon us, I think, really, really quickly.
10:44But again, just the same position,
10:46just making sure that we wait to do the right players at the right time.
10:49We don't rush anything.
10:50We don't fill the squad with players
10:52that we don't think are ready to make that stuff up to the first team.
10:55And that's quite exciting.
10:57It's quite challenging.
10:58But yeah, we're getting there.
10:59The last time I spoke to you,
11:01we kind of discussed the winger situation.
11:04That seemed like that was taken a priority.
11:05Is that still the case, really?
11:07Yeah, that's still the case,
11:08particularly now, I think, in the middle of the park.
11:10That was an area that we needed to strengthen.
11:12We came into the season with Marlon,
11:14with Doz and, you know,
11:18Terry, who's been more of a utility player for us.
11:20So, yeah, it was definitely an area that we wanted to strengthen.
11:23And now we're looking at having, you know,
11:24three top players join us with Luke, Mark and John.
11:27So we've moved away from the middle of the park now.
11:30And I think, yes,
11:30certainly bolstering the options wide, I think, is a priority.
11:34Is it fair to call them the kind of high-tariff players,
11:36these players going forward,
11:37that are going to, you know,
11:38potentially come at a premium, I dare say?
11:41Yeah, they all do.
11:42Good players do come at a premium,
11:43and that's the way it is.
11:45It's probably the way it's always been,
11:46but certainly is, I think,
11:49has exacerbated this transfer window.
11:51You've seen some of the high fees
11:52that have been paid across the board.
11:54And, yeah, it's certainly something
11:56we have to be smart about with recruitment.
11:57Cheers.
11:58Cheers.
11:58Cheers.
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