Pompey boss John Mousinho Alex Robertson, transfer window and Leyton Orient updates

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho gives the latest on Manchester City midfielder Alex Robertson's injury, transfer window news and previews Leyton Orient.

Transcript

00:00 Jon, obviously we'll start off with the news that Alex Robertson has just come out and

00:04 he's got his hamstring injury, which means he's unlikely to play again this season.

00:08 Yeah, a real blow and not the news that we were expecting, or not the news we were hoping

00:12 for anyway. We knew it might be relatively significant from the way that he walked off

00:15 the training pitch and yeah, really disappointing because he was in such good form, he'd been

00:20 such a good performer through the season and we really feel unfortunate for Alex because

00:25 of the progression we thought he would make here. He's back at Man City now getting treatment

00:29 and a real bit of laughing for everyone involved.

00:33 Is that hit now for him, do you think he'll come back?

00:36 Well, this season, probably not. I think there's every chance that he gets back and he's fit

00:43 and he's outside and he's probably training but I think the severity of the injury means

00:47 that he would be very lucky to be available for any games this year. If he is then it's

00:53 a bonus but we're making sure that Robert gets the best possible treatment first and

00:57 foremost and gets back nice and strong and fit and we don't know if it's going to be

01:00 this year.

01:01 Is it possible to pinpoint the reasons why it occurred?

01:03 You can look at a million different things when you're looking for injuries. We'll obviously

01:06 have a full rundown of what we think we possibly could have done different or done better but

01:13 you can look at, honestly and I've done it myself with injuries, you can look at a thousand

01:18 different things. You can look at training minutes, the position of your car seat, orthotics,

01:23 your back, how your neck felt in the morning. All of these things we do have to take into

01:27 account but I think if you go on a real hunt to try and pin down too many things you can

01:32 find a thousand different reasons as to why it happened. We felt obviously that he was

01:36 good enough to go into training on a Thursday. He's pretty much trained every single session

01:40 so far this year. He's been available for the majority of the games. He's played 90

01:45 minutes for a lot of them. He didn't have a huge workload over Christmas because of

01:48 the fact that when he did play I think he came off in at least three of those four games.

01:55 We obviously will have a look and review from our end but injuries unfortunately happened.

01:59 I want to think that it's not severe when your hamstring goes like that. There's always

02:05 things you look at. Maybe it's not something that acutely happened. Something we'll have

02:10 to look at with Robbo a bit further down the line and just make sure everything is aligned

02:15 and make sure that he progresses further in his career without having those injuries again.

02:18 Have you spoken to him?

02:19 Yes, he's obviously disappointed. He's really down. He wanted to play here for the rest

02:24 of the season. He was in great form. I think the positivity around him was justified. He

02:29 just wants to play football so unfortunately for him he's not going to be able to do that.

02:33 In terms of his loan now, is that cancelled?

02:35 No, we don't have the power to cancel the loan. It doesn't actually make a difference

02:40 to us. There's obviously the finance involved in it because we're obviously paying for

02:44 him but in terms of our ability to bring in another loan it doesn't really impact that.

02:50 Financially as well, you've still got to pay for the rest of the season I suppose, don't you?

02:55 Yes, but not to be flippant with money but one of the benefits of the ownership and the

03:02 way they're backing us at the moment is that the owners have been really clear about saying

03:07 if Alex is injured and the loan isn't terminated then we're not going to look at that money

03:12 and say that's part of your budget that's eating up if we want to do something else

03:15 then the availability is there to do it.

03:18 And for the squad as well, you're clearly a popular lad around the place.

03:21 Yes, really popular lad. All the lads are really. There's never been an injury where

03:25 the lads haven't been upset about it. Everyone's obviously rally round Robbo. We've got to

03:31 get on with it unfortunately. We've got to make sure that we do everything we possibly

03:34 can to go and win games on the pitch but I think any of these lads that end up with any

03:40 injury, whether it's short term, long term, I think there's always a reaction from the

03:44 lads and that's a disappointment.

03:46 In terms of other players, Josh Oluyemi, how's the situation with him in the Finnish club?

03:52 Yes, nothing's finalised at the moment. We're just working to make sure that both parties

03:57 are happy with the terms that Josh departs on and everything's amicable. I think the

04:03 big news for us at the moment or the big game for us at the moment is just to make sure

04:06 that Josh progresses in his career and moves on. I think this is the best possible way

04:10 for him to do it. I think if he has an opportunity to go elsewhere then we can do everything

04:14 we can to make that happen for him.

04:15 You mentioned that amicable. He came up to us earlier and shook our hands as well. Big

04:19 smile on his face. He wants to move on there and do well and get regular football hopefully.

04:24 Yes, it's just obviously about opportunities and Josh's opportunities here this year have

04:27 been limited and with how well I think Will's done it's very difficult for Josh to see that

04:34 progression at this football club. We don't want to clog anyone's future up. I'm sure

04:38 Josh will go on and have a great career and that's what it's about for us, making sure

04:41 that he progresses further down the line and goes and is a success for himself.

04:46 Any idea when the time frame when that will be completed?

04:48 I think within the next week or so hopefully.

04:50 In regards to the game as well, it's obviously been a blip at the moment. How have you guys

04:54 come through this now?

04:55 I think that we've got to make sure that we stay calm and stay focused on what's made

05:01 us a decent side up to this point this season and don't panic and don't throw the baby out

05:05 with the bathwater. I think that's the most important thing is to focus on performance,

05:09 make sure that we perform well. The majority of the time this year when we perform well

05:13 we've got results off the back of it and that's where we're going to focus this weekend.

05:17 I think that even over the last five games we haven't won as many games as we would have

05:21 liked to have won but there were a couple of losses in there particularly where I thought

05:25 we actually deserved to win the game, Bristol Rovers and the weekend in particular. Of course

05:29 we've got to do better and address a couple of those issues, particularly in the final

05:32 third where we're not putting sides to bed and we're not putting their keeper under enough

05:38 pressure. It's not just the finishing, I think it's the way that we create and how much we

05:43 waste some opportunities in the final third as well. So that's been a big focus of us

05:47 in training this week, making sure we get into areas and we create a few more chances

05:51 and actually test the goalkeeper.

05:53 Those four games you haven't won, you've actually dominated them still haven't you?

05:56 Yeah and that's why there's no panic setting in here. If you look at those, certainly we

06:02 dominated the game against Fleetwood, I thought we were disappointing in the second half there.

06:06 It was after the game and now still disappointed with the way we played. Bristol Rovers I thought

06:13 we deserved to win the game to be honest. Exeter I didn't think we deserved to win the

06:17 game, I thought we were a bit poor and a bit low on energy that night and the other day

06:22 against Cheltenham, I think if you play that game another hundred times we win it, the

06:25 majority of it. But we obviously have got to address a couple of those areas where we

06:30 haven't put the ball in the back of the net and a couple of moments of madness that have

06:33 led to Cheltenham scoring and then being able to hold onto the lead. We know that any side

06:37 we play against at this level, they're more than capable of punishing us.

06:40 And how is confidence at the moment?

06:42 Yeah confidence is fine, it's one of those things where confidence picks up the minute

06:46 you score or confidence picks up the minute you win a game. We have to be a confident

06:49 side going into the game over the weekend, we're still top of the league, we're still

06:53 in a really, really fantastic position. I think obviously if anyone had offered us this

06:57 position at the start of the year or a few points earlier in the season I'm sure we would

07:01 have taken it. So we've got to take the perspective there. Things have come at a time when if

07:06 it's spread out, if those losses and those draws are spread out at a different time in

07:10 the season I think no-one's worried about it. Of course we've got to address the fact

07:13 that they've happened now and they've happened all at once but the positive for us is that

07:16 we're still in a really, really strong position having not won as many games as we would have

07:20 liked to have in the last five.

07:22 Thank you very much.

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