- 5 months ago
Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to the media ahead of the Blues' trip to the Hawthorns on Saturday.
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00:00So, John, just a quick reflection on that defeat to Norwich on Saturday.
00:05What were your overall emotions from that game?
00:07Do you think it's a completely different outcome if maybe John Swift scores that chance that he had?
00:12Yeah, I mean, it's a different outcome because we end up drawing the game.
00:15I think in terms of the performance, it doesn't obviously change the performance.
00:21I think the overall feeling this week has just been a bit of regret.
00:25I think we just didn't quite have that belief in the first half that we were going to get something out of the game
00:30and it wasn't until we really clicked into gear for the last 15-20 minutes that we actually believed that I think we belonged at the level
00:36against a side who have spent so much money and have got such a great array of talent.
00:42And maybe that just set us back a little bit early on.
00:44And so it's been interesting for us this week to make sure that we're not playing against price tags,
00:51we're not playing against club history, we're not playing against anything other than 11 other players on the pitch
00:56and I think we've got to get our head around that and make sure we go into games with a lot more confidence.
01:00There was obviously that shout of a late penalty where Ogilvy was clamped down by Jacob Wright.
01:05Did you feel that was a penalty or the right decision from the referee?
01:07Yeah, I thought it was a penalty at the time. I still think it is.
01:11I guess the argument I would make is that the alternative is that there's definitely contact,
01:18everybody's admitted that, the referee's admitted that. I suppose what we're asking to do,
01:22if we ask Connor to ride the challenge and be at a disadvantage when he takes the shot,
01:26then everybody and their dog says, well, why didn't he go down?
01:29So he's gone down because he's felt the contact and I do think it was enough to put him off.
01:34I think if he hadn't gone down, he would have been at a disadvantage.
01:37Callum Lane, obviously, not ideal enough with what looks to be a hamstring injury. How's he doing?
01:42He's OK. Callum will be probably at the optimistic end about four to six weeks
01:48and at the pessimistic end about six to eight weeks.
01:50So anywhere in between, I suppose, four to eight.
01:52We're just waiting on a second opinion for another specialist just to confirm what we think about the scan.
01:58To be honest, it's not the end of the world in terms of bad news.
02:01When he first did the hamstring or when he first picked up the injury,
02:05we thought it might be a bit worse because he was about three months on the sidelines last season
02:09and we thought it was very, very similar. So it's not the same mechanism.
02:13It's not the same injury. It's still a bit of a blow, but it's better news than we thought it would be.
02:17Josh Murphy starting on Saturday. Colby Bishop getting another 90 minutes.
02:21Are they still not fully match fit or are they getting there in terms of being match sharp?
02:25I think they're getting there. I think Colby's there.
02:27Murph hardly trained in the build-up to the Norwich game.
02:31So he's had a four weeks' worth of training this week.
02:32So I think it's going to put him in much better stead for the weekend.
02:34And Adrian Segertic has had quite a good start to life here in England.
02:40There's been talks that he could potentially have the choice of going to play for Croatia.
02:44What do you make of that?
02:46It's something that's going to be up to the Sags.
02:48I don't know what national selection policy is looking like at the moment.
02:54Croatia are obviously the top European side with plenty of options, I think, across the top leagues in Europe.
03:00So maybe it is one for Seg's maybe further down the line.
03:05And Australia, I suppose, slightly different.
03:08Australia have got a real history of taking players from the Championship as well.
03:12So, yeah, I think we'll see. We'll see you on that.
03:15Sorry, excuse me.
03:17Staying with Segertic, he moved to that right-hand side late on in the game.
03:20Is that somewhere you're going to maybe look to test him out?
03:23Yeah, I think he looked really sharp there.
03:26It's one of those. It's an interesting one.
03:27He scored his goal against Oxford from that central position.
03:32He's played the entirety of pre-season from that central position and scored a couple of goals.
03:36He scored his goal at the weekend from cutting in from that side, but actually on the second phase.
03:42So receiving it, as you probably would, as maybe a left-sided 10.
03:45So I just think he's got a lot of flexibility to play across the front line.
03:48It's something that we're definitely considering.
03:50Just a quick transfer up there.
03:52Are you looking at any new faces coming into building for West Brom?
03:54If there are any, then they would not be available for the game because it's just a bit too tight.
04:02But we're pretty close on one.
04:05Going on to Saturday, what are you expecting from Ryan Mason's side?
04:09Quite a similar pathway into coaching as yourself.
04:11Ryan obviously cut his career short through injury and had a long coaching career, I think, particularly with Tottenham.
04:23He stayed at Tottenham for a number of years and went through the ranks there right up until the first team.
04:26He worked under some really experienced managers.
04:28I do know Ryan pretty well and bided his time and waited for the right job, I think.
04:33I think it's been a really, really good start for him at the minute in terms of the results that he's picked up in the early part of his tenure.
04:39I expect him to play some really good football.
04:42I think that West Brom have been one of the sides that has been challenging in the Championship over the past few seasons.
04:47An excellent side last year, maybe slightly undone when the manager left to go to Valencia.
04:52So, you know, they're always a side that wants to be up there.
04:55It's going to be challenging for the Premier League and I expect nothing less on Saturday.
04:58So, it's going to be a really, really tough test, but I also think we can go there with plenty of confidence.
05:02I think if we shake off some of the doubt we cast over ourselves at the weekend,
05:07I think we need to go there, attack the game and make sure that we give them a tough time.
05:11Finally, another sold-out away end on Saturday.
05:13How important is it that you avoid a reoccurrence of last season's defeat up there?
05:18Yeah, that's not even in our thinking.
05:19So, we're going there to try and win the game.
05:21Thank you for your time, John. Good luck on Saturday.
05:23With Callum, obviously, he's had three hamstrings now since February.
05:32Is this preventable at all or is it just the way he plays?
05:36I'm sure. It's an interesting one.
05:39Is it preventable? Well, we never quite know.
05:42The best way to prevent it is for him to not play.
05:45That's not going to happen.
05:46And for him to not sprint, that's not going to happen.
05:48There's plenty of things we can do to try and, I suppose, mitigate the risk on Callum's hamstring injuries,
05:53which we'll try and do.
05:54But he had a long road recovery from the one that he picked up against Oxford.
05:59And we got him back at the end of the season.
06:01He had a full pre-season or full pre-pre-season coming into the pre-season here.
06:07Slight reoccurrence of, well, slight issue with his hamstring during pre-season,
06:13but nothing that was too bad.
06:14And he picked up a more serious one against Norwich.
06:16So, I don't know.
06:19If we knew how to prevent that type of injury,
06:23then football would be a straightforward game and no one would get injured.
06:26But, yeah, unfortunately, like you say,
06:27if we want players to be explosive and we want to operate at the top end of their capacity,
06:31then they're going to pick up injuries.
06:33You look at Jordan Williams and hopefully that's resolved now.
06:36So it can be done, can't it?
06:37Yeah, we hope so.
06:39We never know with any players.
06:40I think one of the biggest predictors of future hamstring injuries
06:43is the fact you've had the injury in the past.
06:45That's one of the things that once you've picked up a hamstring injury,
06:48it can be one of those things that reoccurs, unfortunately.
06:52And through a combination of rehab, sometimes lifestyle changes or small tweaks
06:58and changes in lifestyle, whether that's,
07:01it can be something as sort of seemingly silly as getting a new bed
07:06or adjusting the levels on your car seat, all those sort of things.
07:10And I've been through it myself, having had a couple of years of really,
07:13really bad hamstring injuries.
07:14You want to try everything and you want to try and make sure that you really get to the root of the problem.
07:18And, yeah, there's a lot of times you can probably overthink it
07:21because it's one of those things you are going to pick up injuries in the game.
07:24And he did that in the tackle line, did he?
07:26Yeah, I don't think it was the tackle itself,
07:29but it was the mechanism of pushing off just before the tackle.
07:34So it was actually a fairly similar mechanism to the way that he did it against Oxford.
07:41But, yeah, thankfully not the same result.
07:43Will Colby remain as your penalty taker?
07:48Yeah, yeah.
07:49I think that Colby's got enough credit in the bank
07:50and there's, I think there's plenty of trust
07:56and there is plenty of confidence that I have in Colby
07:58that I know he's going to pick up the next one
08:00and hopefully put it in the back of the net.
08:02It's a funny one because he's missed four of his last ten,
08:06but overall since he's been here he's scored 18 of 23.
08:09So that's a hell of a match.
08:11He's put past keepers.
08:12Yeah, he's scored some big penalties as well.
08:14There's a couple that I can think of.
08:17Real pressure penalties, the one against Barnsley,
08:19the one against Norwich last season
08:21when I think he missed the previous one against Derby,
08:24stepped up against Norwich away and put it in the back of the net.
08:26And unfortunately sometimes when you do step up against excellent goalkeepers
08:30and sides that do their homework,
08:32it can be a sort of difficult place to be.
08:35But I've got every faith in Colby to pick up the next one
08:38and show the confidence that we need him to show.
08:40Are you concerned about his recent record?
08:42No, I think we want players to score penalties all the time, but it happens.
08:48Players do miss penalties.
08:49Unfortunately, it's not as easy as everybody makes out.
08:52And yeah, it's one of those things.
08:54I think that we're more than happy with the place that Colby's in at the minute.
08:59Like you say, he's got a lot of high pressure ones.
09:01I remember Port Vale away in the title season late time and he stepped up
09:06and that was a huge, precious one.
09:08And he does that all the time.
09:10Yeah, even being in the penalty against Preston last year on his comeback,
09:12that was a big penalty for us at the time.
09:14I think it was 2-1.
09:15It relieved a lot of pressure in the game to make it 3-1
09:18because Preston had had a decent comeback just after half-time.
09:20So he's taken plenty of them.
09:22That's never an issue for us with Colby.
09:24I know he's always going to step up and he's going to put his hand up
09:27to actually be out there to fail.
09:28There's plenty of players that I've played with, I've seen throughout my career
09:32that when push comes to shove and there's a penalty shootout, there's no issue.
09:37But they don't want to be the ones that put their hand up and step up
09:40and actually face that pressure.
09:41So anyone that wants to do that, I've got a lot of respect for.
09:44If he had got the penalty for Conor Ogilvy, would he have taken it again?
09:48Oh, good question.
09:49I think he would have done, yeah.
09:50I think he would have done.
09:52I think, yeah, I think he'd have picked it up and taken it.
09:56Obviously, John Swiss coming up against his former club this weekend.
09:59You mentioned when he arrived, you saw him as a number eight potentially.
10:03He's been playing a bit deeper at the moment, hasn't he?
10:06Yeah, it's something that we've experimented a little bit with pre-season
10:10and we've obviously gone into the season with that system
10:12and to be honest, on performance over the two games,
10:15I think it's been positive in terms of us as a team as a whole
10:19and it's also been positive from John.
10:21So I still think his position is probably better as a 10 or as that left-sided eight.
10:27Just at the minute, the way that we're managing the squad, Marlon's obviously out.
10:30Luke, we're giving a bit of time to make sure that he can settle in.
10:33So at the minute, I think it's a pretty good solution for what we're looking at.
10:37You saw how beautiful he's, or a beautiful striker he is of the ball
10:40when he hit the bar as well.
10:41Yeah, and that's something that throughout his career he's done very well.
10:44He's got a lot of goals in his career in the Championship
10:47and if you look at his goalscoring record through the years,
10:51he's always managed to pick up a fair few from that midfield position.
10:54So it's something we really want to encourage.
10:55Even if he's playing from that deeper position, he's got a very, very good strike,
10:58takes a very good set piece and as we saw at the weekend,
11:01you know, a couple of inches away from getting us back into the game.
11:04Do you think when he partners to Zell, he is better suited as a sixth then?
11:07Yeah, that's what we think at the moment, yeah.
11:11We do think they've both got similar attributes in terms of being able to do that,
11:14but we quite like Doz in that left side of the eight spot.
11:17I suppose that shows what you miss him in Marlon Pack, doesn't it?
11:19Yeah, and one of those, Marlon had an excellent pre-season
11:22and for us to lose him just before that first game of the year was a big blow.
11:26Luke LaRue can play there as well, of course.
11:28Yeah, that's Luke's position. Luke's position is a six.
11:31We've spoken about how he came in late and I think he's pretty close now
11:35to being in contention for a start.
11:37And what has John brought to the team and the squad since he's been here?
11:41I think he brings a lot of quality, a lot of calmness.
11:43I think he's got the ability to break lines with his passing
11:45and particularly I think hopefully so in the second half of the weekend
11:48when he does get going and he starts to dictate a game,
11:50then he can switch the ball very well.
11:53He keeps the tempo ticking over very nicely and he provides a goal threat as well.
11:56So I think there's a lot of good attributes that we've seen from John
12:00over the last few games.
12:01In terms of transfers, are you close to anything at the moment?
12:04Yeah, there's a couple of bits that we're bubbling over with.
12:07Obviously we're getting close to the deadline now
12:08so we're just hopefully concluding a couple of deals.
12:11I don't think anything's going to be in before the weekend
12:13and if it is then I don't think we're going to have any players
12:16ready to affect the squad.
12:18But hopefully looking towards the Preston game,
12:21there might be a bit of activity and we'll go into the international break
12:23and then obviously settle from there when the window closes
12:26and see what the squad looks like.
12:27In terms of the football club, you've looked at Bellick,
12:29you're looking at Josh Knight as well.
12:32Do you want a centre-half?
12:33It's not a priority for us at the moment.
12:37We've got five contracts to centre-half
12:38so there's positions that we are definitely looking to strengthen.
12:43We've spoken about those in here
12:44but centre-half's one that we're not necessarily prioritising.
12:47If you did bring one in, is it an option to loan out Boat at all?
12:52Again, not something we've particularly thought about at the moment.
12:55We like the composition of where we are at the minute
12:57in terms of the contracted boys
12:59and we think even with the likes of Van who's missed a lot of football
13:02I think it's pretty good for him to be in and around the first team squad
13:05at the moment and to keep pushing
13:06and we definitely see him as someone who can affect the first team.
13:09I suppose to him there's not even particularly any cup games either,
13:11is there, till the FA Cup?
13:13Yeah, I guess that's part of the issue
13:15about being knocked out of the League Cup
13:16so we'll monitor that and we'll see how it goes
13:18but we've got a bit of time as well in the international break
13:20with the squad to potentially get a game in there
13:23so we'll see how that is.
13:24I know what you're going to say here
13:25but Josh Knight, what do you think about him?
13:27Yeah, you know what we're going to say obviously
13:29with a player that's contracted to another club
13:31we won't comment on it.
13:32Any other injuries at all?
13:34Injuries? No, no other injuries.
13:35Obviously Callum's picked up the injury at the weekend.
13:38Anyone else that came off was not because of an injury
13:41just tactical substitutions
13:43and we've not picked up anything in training this week.
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