Pompey boss John Mousinho Exeter City preview

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho previews the trip to Exeter and talks about the transfer window and concerns from fans over recent form.

Transcript

00:00 The team set the bar so high this season, four points clear of the top of the league

00:03 in the last two games, it sparks a bit of panic among the supporters, how do you see that?

00:08 I mean I don't think there's any panic to be honest, I didn't feel any panic at the

00:13 unboxing day, there's always going to be a few that's, I guess the minority of voices

00:19 that worry about what's happening but I think the message for me is when we, a good example

00:23 when we won at home against Bolton, when we beat Bolton and put ourselves in that position

00:29 we hadn't achieved anything, we hadn't won the league, we hadn't seen Bolton off, we

00:34 hadn't secured anything and then when we lost against Bristol Rovers the complete flip side

00:38 of that, nothing's changed for us, there's no disaster, there's no panic, it's another

00:43 game we haven't won and obviously we want to do better but I think it's really important

00:46 to look at victories and defeats and try and be objective about things and the most important

00:51 thing for us is to make sure that we do take the positives and the negatives from Tuesday

00:55 and roll onto Friday making sure that we correct any of those negatives and amplify all the

01:00 positives.

01:01 I suppose it's really, it's historical, it's happened before, Pompey 2018, 2020 when they

01:06 toppled the league and they don't end up anywhere so that's what the situation, people just

01:10 have a bit of trepidation from history rather than the current team.

01:13 Yeah and I think that's fine and I think that's one for obviously the fan base, being a football

01:18 fan myself I completely get it, being someone who's seen that through the years, the natural

01:24 inclination is to look back at history.

01:25 As far as we're concerned the historical context of it has nothing to do with us, there are

01:30 hardly any players left from those eras, everything's changed around the football club, it's a completely

01:34 different team so naturally of course we understand that that might be coming from people externally

01:40 but as far as we're concerned inside the group we're just making sure we stay level headed

01:44 and like I said when we win games we know we haven't cracked it and when we lose games

01:48 it's not a disaster either.

01:49 Obviously it is disappointing to take one point from the last two matches.

01:52 Yeah we want to win every game and we would have looked at those two games and thought

01:55 we could have taken six points from them.

01:56 The bigger disappointment to me was the Fleetwood game, I didn't think we performed particularly

01:59 well against Fleetwood and I thought we got what we deserved.

02:02 I think on Tuesday I thought it wasn't the case, I thought we performed well and deserved

02:05 at least a point and on balance having looked at everything after the game I thought we

02:09 did deserve to win the game so we obviously need to do more to actually make sure we secure

02:13 those points but yeah plenty of positivity I think going into Friday.

02:17 Obviously we can't see the future but are there little concerning signs for the last

02:20 two games at all?

02:22 No there's always signs in terms of the post-match that we pick up and make sure we try and improve

02:29 upon so when we went through the period of winning four games and not conceding a goal

02:35 we were very very clear on the fact that we still wanted to improve in certain areas and

02:39 that's been the case when we win, lose or draw and again over the last couple of games

02:42 we've looked at the post-match in exactly the same way, reviewed them, made sure that

02:47 we are picking up on everything that needs to be picked up on and I think that's the

02:50 most important way that you try and build a successful team, looking at victories, looking

02:55 at defeats in a game that has such small margins and is such a low scoring game and just striving

03:00 to make sure that the performance is there and more often than not we're sure that we're

03:04 going to pick up results.

03:05 Other than the late goal against Bristol Rovers what else concerns you most of all about that

03:09 performance?

03:10 Nothing really, I'm not concerned about the performance, I thought the performance was

03:13 good, I was much more concerned about Fleetwood to be honest, I didn't think we performed

03:16 particularly well at all in the second half against Fleetwood and I thought we looked

03:19 a bit flat, I didn't think we looked flat at all on Tuesday, I thought we had to deal

03:23 with a difficult away atmosphere and a difficult away side and I thought we dealt with that

03:28 really well and towards the back end of the game I thought we looked likely to score,

03:31 I thought we created more chances, everything we looked at post-game indicated that and

03:36 we didn't put the ball in the back of the net and when Bristol Rovers had their chance

03:39 they showed a bit of composure, squared the ball across the box and ended up putting it

03:43 in from close range and they obviously did that, did it better than us, got the three

03:47 points and there's loads we have to improve upon but in terms of concern that's definitely

03:52 not the emotion we're feeling at the moment.

03:54 In terms of Etixer, how do you approach this match selection wise?

03:57 I think we need to make sure that we are wary of minutes that the lads have put into their

04:01 legs over the last couple of weeks and particularly with the amount of rain that we've had it's

04:05 just been heavy pitches, training pitches, match pitches, all of these sort of things

04:08 we've got to take into account and then ultimately pick on form and pick the side that we think

04:12 is going to win the game so in terms of team selection we'll approach it as we do every

04:15 week making sure that we pick a side that we think is going to go and win and take into

04:21 account all those other factors as well but that's the most important thing for us.

04:25 With injuries there are some positions you can't rotate though, does it make it difficult

04:28 for you?

04:29 I suppose it makes it difficult and easy if that makes any sense because difficult in

04:34 the sense where you can't actually rotate and you can't take players out of that physical

04:38 firing line when they've had so many minutes under the belt but easy because we don't have

04:42 any other choice so we have to play certain players in certain positions and to be honest

04:46 the players that have taken up the mantle when the injuries have been going through

04:52 the camp have performed really well and have been very good value for their places so no

04:56 concern in terms of that, it's always nice to have those options, we want to have two

04:59 players in every position but at the minute with injuries we've obviously picked up and

05:02 we have to make sure that we deal with that and that's going to be a definite theme through

05:06 the last 23 games of the year as well, we've got to make sure we deal with anything that

05:09 goes off the pitch including injuries and get through it and make sure we perform well.

05:14 You mentioned that workload at this time of year, so hectic, will there be many changes

05:19 at all for Exeter?

05:20 I think we're going to have to make sure you get the right balance between freshening things

05:23 up and then keeping a side together that has actually performed well on Tuesday and again

05:27 like I said probably apart from 45 minutes against Fleetwood I thought for the past few

05:32 weeks we've been the dominant side in most games that we've played, I think we've played

05:35 really really well for those four games that we balanced back after Blackpool so we've

05:39 got to make sure we don't chuck the baby out with the bath water and continue on that line

05:44 of progress that we've been continuing on and that's going to make for an interesting

05:48 team selection.

05:49 In terms of injuries what's the situation?

05:52 No new injuries from the weekend, so we've got the same squad to choose from, Connor

05:57 Ogilvie is very very close to returning to training, Tom Lowry is back out on the grass

06:01 today which is really positive and the only one that is a slight negative on the updated

06:07 is Zach Swanson, we spoke about him on Tuesday and he's going to have to go under the knife

06:12 again which is a bit of a blow for us because he's been performing so well and really I

06:17 think when he has been available and has been playing for us this season he's been brilliant

06:21 so we'll have to see how that one pans out but hopefully we can get him back relatively

06:25 soon.

06:26 You previously said that was a minor operation if that happened, is that still the case?

06:30 It is minor, it's just until you actually get in there and open up the area it's difficult

06:36 to actually tell how much repair they need and I think that was the case last year when

06:42 Zach had a very similar operation but on the other side so we're not going to put a timescale

06:46 on it yet, we're going to wait until he has the surgery but it's nothing major, it's no

06:52 big ligament damage, ACL, complete rupture or anything like that so positive on it but

06:56 unfortunately he's got to do it.

06:57 As you say you can't put a timescale on it at all?

07:00 Nothing at the moment, we will once he's had the surgery, we've got no problem doing that.

07:04 Finally in terms of your lone players here at the club, you already said that Andrew's

07:08 going to stay this season, any updates at all on Batkemara and Norwich?

07:12 Nothing from Man City or from Norwich with Robertson and Abu so we expect them to be

07:18 with us for the season.

07:20 Have they told you they'll stay or are you waiting to hear from them?

07:23 No, they've told us they'll stay but we are just very realistic in terms of the fact that

07:27 we know things can change and ultimately the parent clubs have got say in that so particularly

07:32 I think maybe in Abu's case where we could go back in and possibly affect the first team

07:36 if we're being realistic about it, we've got to make sure that that is something that doesn't

07:41 catch us completely off guard if it does happen but we aren't expecting it to happen at all.

07:45 So you'll be waiting for the end of January to be certain?

07:48 Yeah and we've got really good communication and really good dialogue with Norwich and

07:52 we spoke to them really recently, they assured us that they weren't going to recall Abu and

07:55 I think if they do it would have to be extreme circumstances for them and I'm sure we'll

07:59 get plenty of notice.

08:00 And Man City, when did you last speak to them?

08:02 Yeah same, so I spoke to them a couple of weeks ago and you might have seen a bit of

08:07 media out about Alex which was great, really positive and there's absolutely no intention

08:11 from their end to do anything other than keep him with us for the rest of the season which

08:16 is really good.

08:17 As you say though, you can't quite relax him?

08:19 No, you never know, you never know.

08:21 Sides pick up injuries and hopefully the lads will be in sparkling form for us so yeah you

08:26 never know, you've got to make sure that you deal with it as and when it pops its head

08:30 up. Thank you.

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