- 5 months ago
Pompey v Reading, Carabao Cup - John Mousinho's press conference
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00:00I think we're pretty happy, just erring towards satisfied I think. We don't want to get too
00:06carried away with anything. We've won one league game out of 46, which is great. Obviously
00:11in a better position than we were this time last year, but I think we can't get too carried
00:16away with what we've actually managed to do so far. It's a nice position to be in. I thought
00:20it was a good performance overall. I thought it was a good performance from Adrian as well,
00:23who was the difference maker and deserved all the accolades that he's had over the weekend.
00:27So, yeah, we're quietly satisfied, but that's all pretty much been put to bed now because
00:32we've got a really important game to focus on for tomorrow.
00:34Managed to get a full 90 minutes out of Colby Bishop. Is he potentially maybe lacking that
00:39match fitness still? It's just that he didn't play much in pre-season. Could he maybe be
00:43in contention to start tomorrow?
00:45Yeah, I think in terms of lacking match fitness, probably on the surface he is, but I don't
00:51think it affected anything that Colby did at the weekend. So I didn't look at a player that
00:54wasn't fit or wasn't match fit, hence we kept him on for the 90 minutes. So, I
00:57no, I'm not worried about Colby at all.
00:59Yang Minhoek got 20 minutes when he came on, Florian being keen against 70. What do you
01:04make of those two's performance?
01:06Yeah, I thought that if you consider the fact that both of them are very, very new to the
01:10football club, I think Minhoek literally walked into the door on Thursday afternoon and had
01:18his first training session on the Friday. So, for us to trust him and back him to go on
01:23in such an important game, hopefully speaks volume about how highly we rate him and how
01:28excited we are to have him in the building. And certainly with Flo, it was similar. If
01:32you look at where we were previously in the week before, Josh Murphy had started the game
01:37against Peck Zola. Florian came on and he had a small part to play towards the back end
01:40of the game. But I don't think we were expecting to have to hand him his full debut this soon,
01:45having had a bit of a stop-start pre-season, hadn't played a huge amount with Swansea in pre-season.
01:49He also has barely played past 60 minutes, I think in the last 12 months. So, I was really
01:55pleased with Flo's contribution. I think that naturally he came off the pitch, he was probably
01:59disappointed not to have scored a couple of goals and I think he'll improve as he goes
02:03on and his confidence levels get higher and higher. But he definitely showed some glimpses.
02:07His work rate was excellent, showed some really good glimpses on the ball as well. And yeah,
02:11we're looking forward to seeing how much both of them can improve.
02:13Going on to Josh Murphy, how's his recovery going? Are we still looking at that time frame
02:18of West Brom away in a week or two?
02:20Yeah, same time frame, he's fine. He's been progressing really nicely and we're hoping
02:24to see him on the bus up to West Brom.
02:25Paddy Lane and Marco Marnie, two players that are going to make a return to Fratton Park tomorrow.
02:32Does that make the analysis a little bit easier, that you're a bit familiar with the two?
02:35Not from my point of view. I think maybe if you're looking at individual battles and the
02:41lads always look at their individual clips and who they're coming up against. I suppose if Paddy's
02:46playing on the right, Conor Ogilvie probably knows him pretty well. Jacob Farrell knows him pretty well.
02:50It's one of those where maybe it just makes the lads individual lives a bit easier. But yeah, it'd be a
02:55nice occasion to welcome them both back. I think they certainly both deserve a warm welcome. I know they'll get it as well.
03:01Obviously Colby led the team out on Saturday. What did you make of his performance as a captain?
03:06And is he definitely someone you're looking to make that captain going forward?
03:10Yeah, I thought he was immense to be honest. And Colby didn't get his goal. I know he'll be
03:14disappointed about that as well. I think if Colby doesn't score, he's always disappointed coming
03:20off the football pitch. But I thought he led the team brilliantly well. I thought he was a constant
03:24physical problem for the two centre-backs. Considering Moore and Helic are two of the biggest in the league,
03:30they didn't get a huge amount smaller when Moore came off either. So I thought Colby really led the
03:35line brilliantly and was a constant threat in terms of that physical presence. He's always a constant
03:41threat in terms of goal scoring. And defensively, we can rely on him as well. So if you add all that into
03:45the fact that he works his socks off at the top end of the pitch. And I saw some very, very good and
03:51promising traits throughout pre-season. And I have with Colby for the past two and a half years. But yeah, it's been
03:55nice and rewarding with that captaincy at the weekend. Going back to the injuries, obviously
04:00Marlon, Pat missed with a swollen knee. How's he feeling right now? Yeah, he's all right. Marlon's
04:05booked in for surgery tomorrow. It's not major surgery, so it's not. Thankfully, we're not talking
04:10ACL or anything serious like that. We're hoping it's going to be about six weeks that he's back.
04:17So yeah, that is better than we perhaps feared initially. So Marlon's okay. He's old enough to
04:25grasp the realities of what happens when you get injured. And when we knew he was injured on Friday,
04:30we didn't have the scan results, but we knew he was injured Friday. And yeah, there was never any
04:34doubt that he wasn't going to be traveling with us to Oxford. He was a big part of the win at the
04:38weekend. And yeah, by the time we report back home, he's going to miss the game tomorrow, but he'll be
04:44there on Saturday and he'll be there the following Saturday and every other Saturday until he's back
04:47fit. Regan, Paul and Conor Shortnessy obviously had their first partnership together since that
04:52Chesterfield game over a year and a half ago. How happy were you to have those two back on the
04:57football pitch together competitively? It's just nice to have them both fit, I think. That's one
05:01thing we haven't been able to do. So they've just missed each other in terms of that journey back
05:07from fitness when Regan got back into the groove last year. Shock's had the persistent calf problem.
05:12And yeah, I think vice versa. So I think Regan found himself with a bit of an injury post-Norwich.
05:18Shock's came back into the side in January and it just continued like that for the rest of the
05:21season. So very nice to have that partnership back. They were very successful with that centre-back
05:26partnership in the first 15 games of the League One campaign. And yeah, I think they showed some
05:32really good bits at the weekend and we're looking forward to improving upon that as well.
05:36Zach Swanson came on against Oxen on Saturday. Maybe he didn't go into position many thought he
05:41actually came on in midfield. Is that something you're maybe looking to trial out tomorrow?
05:44He's played a huge amount in the middle of the park pre-season. We've not had the numbers that
05:51we've, I guess, needed in some of the pre-season games. And so it's only recently that Luke and
05:55Mark have signed in the haven't game. They weren't available. They weren't available to play. So it's
06:01a position we've looked at playing Zach in, not just to Phil, but because we actually feel that he
06:05can have an impact there. And we sort of feel like Zach knows what he's doing at right back. He's such
06:10a good player that we can just trust him to slot in there. My decision on the day was that when I
06:16throw Zach into those sort of games, he knows what's expected. He's been at the level before.
06:21He knows the press. He knows the set pieces. He's been with me for, yeah, two and a half years as
06:27well. So I didn't feel it was particularly fair for Luke or Mark to sort of come in in those conditions.
06:32So I was really happy sending Zach on just as a player that I can definitely trust and he gets
06:37everything. And I actually thought he lifted us. He played very, very well for the short amount of
06:41time that he was on the pitch. And I was really pleased to see what he brought. Going on to Reading
06:45in the round one of the Carabao Cup tomorrow, what are you going to expect from Noel Hunt's side?
06:50Obviously, they haven't started the season off particularly well, maybe.
06:53I think only in terms of results. I think the two games, we've watched both the games against
06:56Lincoln and Huddersfield and they can count themselves, I think, really unlucky at the
06:59weekend. It was a game of very, very fine margins. They could have taken the lead just before Huddersfield
07:03took the lead. And it's one of those, I think. And Noel will probably be scratching his head as to how
07:08he's come away from these two games without anything to show whatsoever. So we expect a really strong
07:14Reading side to come to Fratton Park and a side that having not won the first couple of games will be
07:19all desperate to get a win on the board. Finally, back at Fratton Park tomorrow. How much are you
07:23in the group looking forward to being back in front of the home crowd for the first time this season?
07:28Yeah, I think it's something that we're all looking forward to. I guess there's probably
07:32two stages to it. There's tomorrow night and then there's Saturday. And we're obviously not
07:36expecting a sold out Fratton Park tomorrow, which is as expected for a League Cup tie. But I still think
07:41it's a really special place to play football and a nice little introduction to what we're going to
07:46face at the weekend, certainly in terms of the home crowd and, you know, how partisan they're going
07:52to be. So yeah, very much looking forward to getting back to Fratton Park. It's been a very,
07:55very special place to play. Thank you for your time, John.
07:57Cheers.
08:01Obviously, you've mentioned about Marlon's injury. What influence can an injured
08:06Marlon Park have around the football club still? I think that he is probably one of the best
08:15captains that I've ever seen in my time. Certainly as a player, as a coach and the lot,
08:20I think he's absolutely superb in the way that he conducts himself. Very, very easy choice,
08:25I think, early on when I first took the job to make him captain and then to make him club captain
08:28in the summer. And that's not just because of what he does on the pitch and how vocal he is,
08:32it's how he conducts himself off the pitch as well as an ambassador of the football club,
08:37as a Portsmouth fan and as someone who just knows the game brilliantly well. I think he can help
08:41everybody, whether it's individual conversations, whether it's with the group and that's why we
08:46wanted him at the game at the weekend. We're going to have him at the game again against Norwich and
08:49he'll definitely be on the bus up to West Brom as well. So yeah, we won't not be seeing Marlon at
08:55all because I think he can have a real impact off the pitch too. I remember the pre-season game against
09:00Peck Zwoller. He was obviously on the bench as a substitute, but he seems to be chatting to
09:05the coaching staff a lot as well. Does he have any input as well into games?
09:08Yeah, he gives us a really different perspective on things and Marlon now understands exactly the
09:12way that we want to play. He's been with me for the entirety of my time as Portsmouth head coach and
09:18that's really valuable to have. He can give us a bit of feedback in terms of what the players are
09:22thinking, what perhaps needs to be done differently or needs to be kept the same. That's really,
09:27really valuable to have. So I think the most important thing is he's good at what he does.
09:31So you can be as vocal as you want and you can have as much of a presence as you want,
09:36talk to as many people as you want, but if you're not good and if you're not coherent and if you don't
09:41make any sense and it's irrelevant, but Marlon is definitely all three of those things he's excellent
09:46to have around. How good was he looking for his season? Yeah, I thought it was the best he's looked,
09:52I think, in a sort of pre-season build-up. He's always very, very fit, Marlon, so he's come back
09:57to the three pre-seasons that we've done so far in fantastic shape, but I thought he looked really
10:01sharp as well and if you look at that Reading game, I thought he ran the game against Reading.
10:04He was superb. He's done very well and he was certainly a name. Before we knew about the injury,
10:14he was a name that we were very, very close to selecting for the starting eleven and that was
10:19that's probably that one position we would sort of hammer and are in, how we maybe mix in the three.
10:24I think that Swifty, Daz and Marlon in the middle of the park have all had really,
10:28really good pre-seasons and yeah, that was a tough selection.
10:31Obviously Reading are playing in the Carrier Cup. A couple of familiar faces there as well for you guys.
10:36Yeah, it'll be, I guess, a nice moment to welcome a couple of those boys back to Fratton Park,
10:42particularly Paddy who had such a brilliant time here and was a real fans favourite and
10:46yeah, I think that'll be a nice little moment, but we've, you know, hopefully they enjoy that and
10:51that's all they enjoy about the evening. Marco Marni as well, how do you think he did here?
10:55I thought he had a really good first loan. If you look at first loans, some of them are
11:00successful, not many are successful, sorry, I'd say. And Mark's was, he had an impact, he contributed,
11:06he scored three goals, three really important goals for us. When you think about it, certainly the
11:11two of them, he could probably take the Stoke one away because I don't think it made a difference,
11:15but, you know, the other two in terms of where we were in the league at the back end, I thought
11:19they were really important goals. I remember the Oxford goal and the second Oxford goal he scored
11:23very fondly because it just relieved the pressure. It scored the three points. It was a massive,
11:27massive away win for us at the time. And aside from that, I thought as a young pro coming in,
11:33Mark did pretty well. There's always that expectation when players come in their first season,
11:37they're going to burst on the scene and do these brilliant things as under-21s players,
11:41and hardly any of them do it. Hardly any of them do it in their first loan. It's a very,
11:45very difficult thing to be able to adjust to the championship particularly. So I think overall,
11:49Mark was really good. At this stage of his career, is he more suited for the League One at the moment?
11:54I don't know. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if a championship club had taken him. We looked at
11:59Mark last season as a consequence of Colby having heart surgery. So it wasn't something that we
12:05decided to revisit this year because Colby has been fit. So yeah, I wouldn't have been surprised
12:11if a championship club had taken him. But at the same time, if he can go and get games at League One,
12:14then great. In terms of your own team selection, how will you approach that?
12:18I think we'll make a couple of changes and that's hopefully what the fans that are paying their money
12:23can expect. But I don't think it's going to be a bad thing. We want to be extremely strong. We back
12:27ourselves to be very strong and we're going to go out and try and win the game. It's a cup that's really
12:31important to us and we want to try and win it. At this stage of the season, we've got to be very,
12:35very wary of where the top, top priorities lie and we won't hide behind the fact that that's the
12:41league for us. It's much better for Portsmouth to remain in the championship than have a cup run.
12:48I'm not saying we can't do both, but that's certainly where we are in terms of our priorities
12:51at the moment. So there are plenty of players that I think are knocking at the door, that are very,
12:55very hungry, that could count themselves a little bit unlucky not to have played at the weekend
13:00and to be able to give two or three of them a chance, I think it's going to be quite a good thing.
13:04The size of your squad, you can rotate the whole 11, couldn't you, if you wanted to?
13:09Yeah, I mean, maybe, but we'll have to see when it comes to selecting the team what we'll do.
13:14I think we have to be careful about certainly doing things like that. It's just to be,
13:18you know, pick and choose the players that you think are going to come in and make an impact.
13:22Kof, Noski and Leroux, could they well start at all?
13:25Yeah, maybe. Again, with a pair of them, they've only had a week's worth of full training.
13:29So it's just an area that we could be cautious in. If you look at where we would be pre-season,
13:36we hadn't, you know, we got into the two games Farnborough and Woking after being back for two
13:42and a half weeks. We felt we were in a good spot after two and a half weeks of the lads having that
13:45fully intense training to be ready to start games again. So I'm not sure with Mark and Luke,
13:49we'll monitor that. But they're not too far away. But yeah, we just have to be careful.
13:55Obviously, Matt Rich has been linked with Reading. What's the situation with that one at the moment?
13:58Yeah, no progress on that so far. So Matt's still our player. I've got no idea what's going on on
14:05the other end of that.
14:06Do you expect him to move before the end of the window?
14:09I think so. I think, you know, you never know. It all depends on, you know, on how things pan out
14:14at whatever club's interested. I'm sure there's still plenty of interest. And in terms of Matt
14:19mulling over his options, he'll have plenty to think about. But yeah, that's something that hopefully,
14:24if we can get the right place for Matt, then it'd be good to see him playing football.
14:28And Abu Kamara, where's he at the moment?
14:30Where's Abu Kamara?
14:31Sorry, Abdullai Kamara.
14:32I was going to say.
14:32Sorry, no more. Abdullai Kamara.
14:35Abdullai plays for Hull.
14:36Oh no. Oh dear, spot.
14:37Abdullai, yeah, similar situation. I think there's definitely a couple of clubs that are interested.
14:42So, yeah, we're hoping to maybe have something tied up in the next week or so.
14:48And the third of the group, Tom McIntyre?
14:49Yeah. Tom McIntyre's been training. He's fully trained on Friday and fully trained today.
14:56So he just needs a bit more time on the training pitch, I think, to get back to fitness and then
14:59we'll see. But certainly, I think if there's any interest, then we wouldn't stand in Tom's way.
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