Pompey v Port Vale: John Mousinho's pre-match verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho chats to The News ahead of Saturday's visit of Port Vale to Fratton Park

Transcript

00:00 So John, we're looking ahead now to this game at the weekend against Port Vale. I forgot

00:05 who it was then actually. Port Vale, how do you see this game?

00:09 I mean, yeah, they roll on, the tough tests roll on. Playing at home is great for us,

00:15 I think we're relishing the opportunity to play at Fatton at the moment so that's a real

00:19 bonus. But yeah, the way we see it is that it's going to be a difficult test for us with

00:24 everything that Port Vale have done this season. I think barring the first game of the year

00:28 they've been excellent and they've picked up some really, really good results early

00:31 on. Even recently when results haven't been great I think performances have been good.

00:35 We watched them the other night against Bristol Rovers and they were excellent on the night.

00:39 Very, very unlucky I think to find themselves a goal down and a man down and the game changed

00:42 after that. So we know that we're going to have to be really well prepared for the game,

00:45 we're going to have to be fully focused. They've recruited well, they're well coached, they've

00:49 got a good system and yeah, I think those sort of games are brilliant. Everybody wants

00:53 to be involved in them and it's going to be a great atmosphere, we know that. On Saturday

00:57 and hopefully we can produce a performance and a result.

01:00 Obviously you're missing Regan Paul and Alex Robertson, how do you approach selection without

01:04 them? I think we've had a look at what it looks like, what the squad looks like underneath

01:09 that and we've got plenty of options. If you look at the centre half options for example,

01:13 we were very deliberate about having four front line centre halves in the building in

01:17 the summer, that was the whole point of the recruitment and trying to retain Sean and

01:23 Riley as well. So we're very, very pleased with the fact that the squad has been built

01:30 in a certain way, it's been built for situations like this where players who haven't necessarily

01:34 had a huge amount of exposure might come in and have to be called upon and we've seen

01:38 that quite a lot over the past few weeks. It's been evident throughout the season I

01:40 think that we've had to use the squad. There's been some unexpected twists and turns, there'll

01:44 be plenty more but the whole point of building a squad is for these injuries, suspensions,

01:48 drops in form and yeah, that's I think a good position for us to be in.

01:52 With Marlon Packer also injured, does this open the door for Ben Stevenson?

01:55 Yeah, there's plenty of options I think in the middle of the park and Ben's certainly

01:59 one of them. We've shuffled around what we've done in there, there's Ben Stevenson, Terry

02:04 Devlin can play in the middle of the park as he's done as well, or sorry, play as a

02:07 holder. I think Tino as well has got the ability to drop in and play as a six, he did that

02:12 extensively for Chelsea's 21s and I think yeah, you've even got the likes of Zach Swanson

02:17 who could certainly operate in the middle of the park as well and it's times playing

02:20 as a right back, we've asked him to do that. So I think we've got a lot of flexibility,

02:24 versatility going in there and I think yeah, that puts us in a good spot.

02:28 Stevenson's not been involved too much since he came to the club, how is he?

02:32 Yeah, I think Ben understands that particularly with Marlon and Joe, they've been two of our

02:36 better players this season, they've formed a really, really good partnership in the middle

02:38 of the park and obviously when Marlon was injured it naturally seemed like the right

02:43 one for Alex to drop back down after he'd done that in the second half against Wigan

02:47 and I'd seen him do that, I wanted him to continue his good form and gave us an opportunity

02:53 to bring a ten in. So yeah, Ben understands that, Ben's been training really well, I think

02:57 he's played pretty well when he's come in in the League Cup games so it's just been

03:01 one of those situations where you've got a good player that isn't necessarily involved

03:04 in the side or in the squad and thankfully for us we have a few of those problems every

03:09 week, we've got a few of those conundrums to deal with and Ben's another one of those

03:12 and when he has come in he's done well and we need that for the rest of the season.

03:17 You've involved him in a few squads recently as well haven't you?

03:20 Yeah, and he's probably deserved to be in a lot more squads than he has been in to be

03:24 honest, he trains very, very well, he's had a good pre-season I think, especially for

03:29 those of you that managed to see the Crawley game here, he was involved in quite a few

03:33 of the goals, he's an excellent central midfielder, that's why we brought him in and honestly

03:37 the only problem that he's had this year is the form of a couple of players ahead of him

03:41 really and there's nothing he can do about that, he can just keep his head down, stay

03:44 fit, work hard and make sure that when he does get his chance at some point that he

03:48 produces.

03:49 For those that haven't seen too much of him, what sort of central midfielder would you

03:52 say he is?

03:53 So I think he's, Ben's quite versatile, he's played as a six and he's played as an eight

03:58 in the middle of the park as well when Forest Green had their league winning side, Ben played

04:03 in a couple of different positions there, he can run as well as handle the ball, I think

04:09 he's excellent in terms of his technique and his range of passing and he does cover very

04:14 very well the defensive ground, so he's pretty good all rounder, I think I would predominantly

04:20 see him as a six although we can operate as an eight as well, very very calm, composed

04:25 young man and overall an excellent footballer.

04:28 You say from the brief games he's had you've been impressed with him?

04:31 Yeah and we had a very very good look at him pre-season, it was another advantage of being

04:35 able to bring him in so early and have him throughout the pre-season trip, have him involved

04:41 in almost all of the pre-season games as well and yeah when he did play I thought he was

04:45 excellent and he was very very unlucky I think to not start the season.

04:49 Marlon how is his injury?

04:50 Yeah Marlon's had a scan on Monday after we didn't, I think sorry I think it was Tuesday,

04:57 he had a scan on Tuesday after we didn't necessarily see the improvements we thought we might see

05:01 over the weekend and yeah unfortunately for Marlon the damage isn't great, we saw him

05:06 at Fratton Park in a boot on Tuesday night and it's going to be about four to six weeks

05:09 for Marlon with ankle ligament damage so a real blow for him because of the form that

05:13 he's in and the form that him and Joe are in in particular but you know one thing we

05:16 know about Marlon is how much hard work he puts in in the gym and on the training pitch

05:20 so he'll be back as soon as possible.

05:22 What's the injury?

05:23 Ankle ligament damage, I think it's his right ankle that got caught underneath Charlie

05:28 Wyke, it was from the challenge in Wigan.

05:31 Wow so he's worse than you expected then?

05:34 You know when a player plays on in one of those injuries I think you always think that

05:38 well there's a possibility that he might be able to train on Tuesday but it stiffened

05:42 up on Sunday, we thought it might improve again with 24 more hours but we always knew

05:47 there was some damage in there but once we got the scan results we were being fairly

05:52 cautious going into the game Tuesday and once we got the scan results we knew that yeah

05:55 it was a bit worse than we thought.

05:57 Other injuries?

05:58 Other injuries are coming along nicely, Tom Mowry is doing very well out on the grass

06:03 again still a number of weeks away but it's good to see him progressing, it's just nice

06:06 to see him in and around training sessions not participating but on the side working.

06:11 Cassini's back in full training available for selection at the weekend, Connor Rogelvy

06:15 has been out on the grass doing everything but joining in training which he might do

06:18 tomorrow if he does then he'll be available for selection at the weekend which would be

06:23 a real boost.

06:24 Anthony Scully has successfully had surgery so we're looking at about 6-8 weeks for Anthony

06:29 to be back and I think the final one Josh Dockrell again long term but we see him every

06:34 day and doing really well.

06:36 Thank you.

06:37 Cheers Neil.

06:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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