- 3 months ago
The News speaks to John Mousinho ahead of Pompey's midweek Championship fixture against Watford.
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00:00John, Defeat X switched on Saturday, but what did you make of the overall application of your side at Portland Road?
00:08Application, great. I don't think we can fall down on an application and an ability to get out there and actually run and compete.
00:16I think there were a few things that were disappointing, particularly because we played so well in patches in the second half and towards the back end of the game.
00:25It caused quite a few problems without necessarily creating a huge amount of chances, but it caused them enough of a problem where they made the quadruple substitution,
00:33changed the way they pressed slightly, but ultimately it was all a little bit too late.
00:38I think that the signs were very positive. I just think we have to be a lot more positive ourselves and a little bit braver at the start of the games and just not wait for things to happen.
00:52We saw Yang Minsuk start and play over 70 minutes of the weekend, his first appearance since the 12th of August. How would you assess his performance?
01:00I thought he showed some really bright touches, had the best chance of the game for us and unfortunately didn't put it in the back of the net.
01:06Something that we'd really like to improve upon in terms of that clinical edge in front of goal.
01:12Obviously, if that goal goes in, it's 1-1 just before half-time and it changes the entire complexion of the game.
01:18I think that Minsuk needs a bit of time to bed into the system, to adjust really quickly to the championship again, having not had a particularly fluid pre-season.
01:28It was a really good chance for him to show what he's about. There's still a load that we want to improve in his game and there's a load that he needs to do better, but I thought there were some positive signs.
01:38Joseph Bersic as well, chosen to line up in goal, made a few good saves in the game too. It must be pleasing now to have him up to speed and have two available keepers to call upon.
01:46Yeah, I thought Joe made a really important save in the first half when Sam Smodics was through 1v1. He stayed strong, he stayed up, stayed in his feet.
01:54He made him actually make a decision and didn't give him anything easily and then a couple of pretty good saves.
01:59I probably expect him to make him in the second half, but a couple of pretty good saves and then I think the next part with Joe is just really working on that distribution.
02:05He's got a long kick. I think he can play from the back and it's just about getting him fitted into the system.
02:10He's still relatively new in the building, so I'm really pleased with Joe's staging.
02:14Marlon Pat returned from the bench to make his first competitive outcome of the season.
02:18He did so by making an instant impact on the game too, as well as getting on the score sheet.
02:23How vital is it to have him back on the pitch?
02:25Yeah, I mean, I thought Marlon was superb when he came on. He dictated the game, controlled the game.
02:31He was a big part of, you know, how Witswitch had to, I guess, adjust what they were doing at the time.
02:36Because he was dropping in and he got on the ball really well and, you know, some of those trademark passes that you saw,
02:41he looked, you know, every inch of the player that we have seen over the past few seasons.
02:45And, you know, maybe rewinding a bit in terms of those years.
02:48So, yeah, Marlon's a massive part of what we want to achieve at the football club, whether he's playing or whether he's not playing.
02:53We've always spoken about that. And, you know, if you can contribute on the pitch like he did the weekend, then even better.
02:57Yeah. There's an opportunity now to try and get back on track and, you know, pretty quickly with a midweek match to look forward to.
03:03Is that a quick turnaround, something you relish in these kind of circumstances?
03:06Yeah, I think whenever you lose again, you just want to get straight back on it.
03:09And I think that we've got a couple of days to work on a couple of pits on the training pitch and we have done this morning.
03:16We've got a full day again tomorrow. So it's a quick turnaround.
03:19But I think it's what we probably want as a club.
03:23Everybody wants to, I think, get back and play at home and, you know, try and get that win on the board.
03:28If we managed to win on Wednesday night, then Saturday will quickly be forgotten about.
03:31And it's two home games on the agenda this week. I imagine you're keen to try and make Fratton a fortress again like we saw for the most part of last season.
03:38Yeah, I think we're just going to focus on the game on Wednesday night first. That's the most important thing.
03:42Our home form hasn't been good enough so far this season. And, you know, we really need to pick up.
03:47It's something that we prided us, we have prided ourselves on over the past couple of years.
03:53Very, very strong last year, very strong the year before, and certainly a huge factor in us staying in the championship last season.
03:59It's like, I suppose, a bit of irony about the start of this season. We've been much better away from home than we have at home.
04:06But we really need to pick up and we've got two great opportunities to do it.
04:09And finally, Watford have an almost identical record to Pompey at this stage.
04:13What have you made of their start of the season adaptation to life under another new manager in Paolo Petzolano?
04:19Yeah, I think that's always going to be an interesting challenge, I think, with a new manager coming in from a different country, adjusting to the squad, to the championship.
04:30I think that it's taken them a couple of games to get going, but they've got a really big win at the weekend, winning at home.
04:35I think that was a massive result, obviously, for the three points and a good performance as well.
04:39They've got some very, very good players and a really distinct playing style as well.
04:44So it's going to be, I think, an interesting clash. I think they're just getting going.
04:48We've probably had a slight blip after a decent enough start, so it's two sides that both need to win the game.
04:53I think it'd be a good one.
04:54Thanks, John.
04:56When you made widespread changes last season away from home, you had some pretty heavy defeats.
05:01That wasn't the case on Saturday, obviously. Do you feel your squad is now stronger and a better player to do that?
05:06Yeah, I think just to sort of qualify a couple of the reasons where we made those changes last year.
05:13The two games that really stick out to me, I think, were Bristol City and West Brom.
05:18And at the time, we felt that with home games coming very, very quickly after, and actually, certainly with the Bristol City game,
05:28we had Swansea at home, I think, a couple of days after. We come off the back of a really busy Christmas period.
05:32So, you know, we made those changes thinking that we'd still compete against Bristol City, but really focusing on the Swansea game.
05:38Unfortunately, we didn't compete against Bristol City, but it came off against Swansea.
05:42And then in January, when we played West Brom, we had the Blackburn game rearranged, the Portsmouth game rearranged.
05:53So we had two extra fixtures in the month on top of the FA Cup, and there were just too many games for us to play at that point.
05:59And it was a really harsh, I think, reflection on the squad because no other squad at the level had to actually, you know, do what we did in terms of that fixture congestion
06:09because of those two postponed games in a week. So those, I think it was just different circumstances.
06:15When we sort of shuffled the deck at the weekend, it was much more around the fact that Conor Chaplin wasn't available, Conor Shocknessy was injured.
06:22We decided to make the change with the goalkeeper, like I said, with John Swift.
06:26Swifty wasn't quite right having injured his ankle in the previous week.
06:30So it was much more out of necessity at the weekend.
06:33I think, ultimately, we feel like we're in a decent enough position through the signings that we've made and through the squad that we're trying to build.
06:41And, you know, we're going to have to see as the weeks go on. I think the proof is always in the pudding in terms of how strong the players are and how good the squad is.
06:50But I think there's been some really positive signs early on. And the biggest thing for me is that, you know, I think we handed out five full league debuts as well.
06:59So it was never going to be smooth. It was never going to be perfect. But these boys now have all got that under their belt.
07:04And, you know, they're definitely going to improve us going forward.
07:07Your squad does seem stronger though, isn't it, than last year?
07:10Yeah, I mean, ultimately, we'll see. It's one thing saying it, it's another thing when we actually go and do it.
07:17We feel it internally. We look at all of the players that we've recruited and, you know, we look at where we are in terms of that squad depth at this stage.
07:26And, you know, we're confident that the squad's got stronger. We will have to, you know, we'll have to see.
07:34What we feel right now is positive. And it's up to the players to show that we're right, hopefully even more right than we think we are, and then go from there.
07:43How's Josh Murphy?
07:45Murph's okay. We're still not 100% with him. So we're going to get him out tomorrow training and see how he is and then just take a view on that for Wednesday. We're very day to day with him at the minute.
07:55So there was a photo of him with some sort of a bouton as well on his ankle. I don't know how old that was or is that an accurate reflection of his injury at all?
08:05No, he's fine. He's fine. Yeah, don't worry about it.
08:09Could it be a case of not rushing him back on Wednesday and perhaps being careful with him?
08:14Yeah, if he's not right, we won't rush him back. If he's right, we're not going to hold him back either. So there's just that balance to find.
08:20I think we've obviously got the international break coming up. But if he's right to play Wednesday, we'll play him.
08:26Obviously, he's a left winger. It doesn't impact your right wingers. But you've had to keep changing your right wings, haven't you, for various reasons.
08:34Is that a frustrating position for you at the moment?
08:37It's a position that we've been looking to strengthen over the summer. We've been looking to fill.
08:41We've brought in a couple of players. We've brought in a few players that you can play there. Florian, Min-Hurk.
08:47Obviously, Seg's had a spell out there as well. And Callum had actually, I think, performed very, very well in that position,
08:55certainly in the Oxford game in a short time where he played as a right winger.
09:00So we've had to chop and change a little bit. Franco's the other player that we've brought in and we haven't seen anything of yet.
09:06Harvey, we're waiting to make his first appearance of the season so far. I think he can operate on the left and operate on the right.
09:11So there's loads of options. I think it's just up to the players to actually grasp that and take it on board and make it their own.
09:19And you've obviously used different players at different occasions, Kovnowski and Devlin as well have come in on that position.
09:26Yeah, we just, you know, clearly with the injuries that we have at the minute, we looked at the weekend and when we were doing all the preparation work for the game,
09:35we looked up and there was sort of Murph, Franco and Harvey just coming back in the late stages of their rehab.
09:40So missing the three of them, we didn't necessarily have a huge amount of options to go with on the right and we decided to go with Mark.
09:46Yeah, Terry's done a good job there as well and it's just about trying to fit in what we think is best for the game plan at that time and going from there.
09:55And to be fair to Mark, I thought Mark did a really good job playing out of position and, you know, it was a tough shift for him.
10:02Is it frustrating that you can't plan that position at the moment because you've never got your first choice, second choice, maybe even third choice?
10:08Yeah, I suppose it's one of those where we're looking for someone to really step up and make that slot their own and, you know, we've got, like you said, various different options there.
10:20And, yeah, it's up to whoever wants to sort of grab the ball by the horns and take their shirt for themselves.
10:25And obviously, Segs has played there. Do you feel he's better central?
10:28Yeah, I think that Segs had, you know, a really good start to the season playing into ten.
10:34He actually scored his goal when he was playing off the right against Norwich, although he didn't come from that position.
10:38And I think he's looked really lively when he's moved out there.
10:41A couple of games recently, he's probably not been quite at it in terms of his performance levels.
10:46But we signed Segs really as a ten, so we've probably seen that as his position, but I think he's got that flexibility.
10:53Connie Chaplin is presumably back available for this game. What have you made of his time here so far, his brief time here?
10:59He's had a massive impact in the changing room, fantastic player, really good lad.
11:03And by his own admission, he probably didn't have the best of games against Sheffield Wednesday.
11:06We all said that about every single player, to be honest.
11:09So there was no one hiding behind anything there.
11:12And yeah, Conor's really been raring to go, obviously missed not playing at the weekend.
11:16But yeah, back and available for the side on Wednesday.
11:19You say massive impact on the dressing room, in what ways?
11:21He's got a huge amount of experience, a really good player. He's played very recently in the Premier League.
11:27And he can help the boys in terms of their professionalism, in terms of expectations of the league,
11:31expectations of what it takes to be successful at the level. And yeah, really lifts the standards day to day.
11:36Like you say, he wasn't the only one that had a bad game at Sheffield Wednesday.
11:40It seemed every player had that, didn't they?
11:42Yeah, there's no one there. There's no one that really came out of that game with a huge amount of credit.
11:47So yeah, just got to dust themselves off and go again and Conor will be raring to go Wednesday.
11:52How would you get the best out of Conor Chaplin? Because he's fit, he's played games a season before he arrived here.
11:58I don't think there's a huge amount that I'm going to do with Conor and mess about.
12:05I think Conor knows his own game, he knows how to get himself going.
12:08I think he's best when he plays with a bit of freedom and he's certainly best when he's going forward,
12:13running forward and scoring goals. So for me, it's about giving him that licence and giving him that freedom to go and show what a good player he is.
12:21Would you consider him in any of the roles other than 10? Maybe left or right?
12:25Yeah, I think you can consider him across the entire front four.
12:29And any other injuries at all?
12:32No, nothing for the weekend. A few tired bodies after the effort that was put in and after the travel.
12:40It definitely wasn't lacking for effort, the performance. So yeah, I think we'll be in good shape.
12:45There'll be no new injuries going into the game, we're just checking on those, the couple at 50-50.
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