Pompey boss John Mousinho West Brom verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News after the 3-0 defeat to West Brom.

Transcript

00:00A harsh scoreline on the performance today, but lessons to be learnt in ruthlessness as

00:10well?

00:11Yeah, I do think it's harsh, the scoreline. I don't think that was a particularly fair

00:16reflection of the game, particularly in the first half where I thought we were really

00:19good and we put West Brom under a lot of pressure. But like you say there, not clinical enough,

00:23not ruthless enough. When West Brom had the chances they put the ball in the back of the

00:26net and they made us suffer, they made us pay for the mistakes that we made and we

00:31couldn't quite do that to them. I think if we actually do put the ball in the back of

00:34the net and take a chance in the first half it's a very different game.

00:37The first half, a crackling atmosphere and probably as a response to the performance

00:43after falling behind after 54 seconds. But again, falling behind after 54 seconds then

00:47gives you a mountain to climb.

00:49Yeah, that would be the message is that don't wait until we do go a goal behind to click

00:53into life like we did. Really disappointing because of the way that we conceded the goal,

00:57the nature of it and how much it changed the game. It gave West Brom something to hold

01:01on to which they did really well. Defended the box brilliantly, the two centre-halves

01:04were outstanding. Again, it's another really good lesson. We spoke about furlong and the

01:12quick throws, the throws in behind in the week and sometimes even when you know what's

01:15coming it's difficult to stop it. But I still think the boys have got to do better and we've

01:18got to do better collectively to make sure that we stop that from happening.

01:21You really got after them with your press and Marlon was setting the tone as well. That

01:27was encouraging.

01:28Yeah, we pressed a lot higher than we have in previous weeks and we did that deliberately

01:33and that was something I thought we got a lot of joy from in the first half. Sometimes

01:36when you do that you're going to get picked off and there are going to be chances at the

01:39other end and that's fine, that's something we accept. But I think being aggressive on

01:43the press like we were really suited us.

01:46A moment of quality after the second half and West Brom showing their quality to shut

01:49the game down pretty well from there on.

01:51Yeah, and once that second goal went in I still thought if we managed to nick one it

01:55would have really changed the complexion of the last 10-15 minutes of the game. We didn't

01:58manage to do that. I feel a bit aggrieved by the third goal but apart from that I don't

02:04have too many complaints about how good West Brom were in the second half.

02:07Josh Murphy fans getting a sight of him today and he really had to really encourage that

02:11debut for Pompey.

02:12Yeah, I thought he was excellent. A constant threat on that left-hand side and I'm really

02:17pleased to have him back in a Portsmouth shirt. The only disappointment was that we had to

02:22manage him and bring him off after 60. We don't want to risk anything with Josh coming

02:25back from the injury and having been out for so long. Once we see more of him getting fitter

02:30and fitter I think there's plenty to come.

02:31He's obviously going to be a threat at Championship level and he showed a lot of indication of

02:36that today.

02:37Yeah, I thought he showed a huge amount going forward and did his job defensively really

02:43well too. There's loads more to come from Josh, that's the most exciting thing. I think

02:48he really is coming into the peak of his career. He's got himself in fantastic physical condition

02:52and he's got the quality to back it up as well.

02:54And Tom McIntyre, obviously it's been a long wait for him. Straight into the starting XI

02:59today.

03:00Yeah, Tom's been really good in training and brings a bit of Championship experience, a

03:03lot of composure and we thought it was the right thing to do to bring him in. I thought

03:07he was really good today and again we just managed Tom making sure that we didn't risk

03:10injury with him playing for too many minutes and we're really pleased with his contribution.

03:15So what was the thinking over that and then Rielly telling him he's missing out as a consequence?

03:19I just thought he was one of those where we needed that experience and Tom's got that.

03:27He's played 100 games in the Championship and I think Rielly can count himself unlucky

03:31to not find himself in the starting line-up but it was one of those things that we made

03:34the decision to do that and go from there.

03:36Conor Shockley, I see you're missing out today. Any social medias to believe? There's been

03:40a bust-up with yourself, can you shed any light on that?

03:42Yeah, a massive fight. We had a massive fight. It's all nonsense, there's no bust-up. I get

03:46on really well with Shocks and he's just struggling with the calf injury to get over it and we're

03:52frustrated, we're really frustrated and he's frustrated but it's one of those, it's an

03:56injury down at the bottom of the calf, the soleus and they can be really, really tricky

03:59for anyone that's ever had one of those. So we've got to get him right, we've got to make

04:02sure that he is right, he's such an important player for us. Even after the bust-up I still

04:07quite like him. We're just waiting for him to come back and we'll see very soon, there's

04:14nothing in that at all.

04:16He trained, he was obviously close, was it just kind of erring on the side of the course

04:19and for the longer term with Conor?

04:20Yeah, he just felt it towards the back end of training a little bit and then didn't train

04:26on Saturday so he didn't train yesterday and that's the, again, maybe one of those

04:31where 50-50 in a different game, last game of the season we play him but if we risk having

04:36him out for another six, seven weeks there's no point in doing that.

04:39And obviously a heartening and gladdening moment with Regan Poole out after ten months?

04:43Yeah, brilliant reception that Regan got. Regan's actually only played I think 15 games

04:47for the football club so to get that reception I think everybody knows the quality that he's

04:51got and what he's going to bring this season and once we've got him back in Boston with

04:55options at centre-half again, we play with that back four, I think it's going to really

04:59add to our squad.

05:00How long is it going to take for Regan to get back to approaching the level that we

05:03saw from him in his Pompey career so far?

05:05I don't know is the honest answer. When you come back from an ACL it can take its time

05:09but he's been out for a long time, he's been training for a long time and we'll see. I

05:13don't know how long it's going to take but hopefully it's very quick and we see him back

05:18in business really soon.

05:19I'm no expert in that field but I think the re-injury rate with ACLs is quite high isn't

05:22it so is that an indication that you've got to guard against those sort of problems?

05:26Yeah, that's why I think we've been very cautious with him. When you have the graft with essentially

05:32putting an artificial ACL into your knee, you have to make sure that the graft sets

05:36in before you can actually do anything and everything else around that then becomes a

05:40problem because of the loss of strength in the hamstring, the quad, the calf, etc. All

05:46these sort of things so we have to be cautious with him and make sure that he's right.

05:49Obein Bouat was having a scan this week, can you give us any update on that?

05:53Yeah, not good news unfortunately with Obein so he's ruptured his patella tendon, real

05:57freak one where he's gone to take a shot in a small-sided game and it's going to be probably

06:01about six months for Obein so we're all really gutted and he is as well.

06:04That's obviously for the supporters to hear that, they're going to be gutted as everyone

06:08is so how much of a blow is that for yourselves and for the lad?

06:11It's a massive blow for that to happen without him even setting foot on the football pitch

06:15for us. We're really devastated by it and unfortunately one of the things that happens

06:21in football just when we had most of our players back and we were looking a bit more healthy

06:25on the injury front that goes and happens so we'll review it as always and go from there.

06:29I guess the supporters perhaps a little bit on the outside they see the number of injuries

06:34and an injury of that and they look to reasons like to the pitch, they look to due diligence

06:39on players, can you just give an insight? I don't think there's a great deal of injury

06:42history for Obein for example and these things all get looked at.

06:46Yeah so with Obein he had a full season last year playing out in Austria, the season before

06:51a full season playing out in the Netherlands. No injury history or hardly any injury history

06:56at all, fine on the medical end and came in and had that freak injury on I think it must

07:01have been on Tuesday it happened so after a period of rest as well so yeah I don't really

07:06know we look into all of these things that's what I assure the fans I know there's a lot

07:10of frustration because they want to see players and it seems like we've got this sort of curse

07:13with injuries at the moment so yeah I really don't know but we are making sure that with

07:19every single injury we pick up and then look at the collectives that we do everything we

07:22possibly can to make sure players don't get injured.

07:24I guess if you look to the injuries now there's a sort of spate of hamstrings going you sort

07:28of say that you know it's not going to be answerable I think you've had like impact

07:31injuries and sort of unusual histories there's no real pattern I guess?

07:34No there isn't and that is a big thing for us when we the soft tissue injuries we do

07:40tend to look at with a bit more depth the contact injuries there's nothing you can do

07:43and I've been open about how I'd much rather we train with intensity rather than you know

07:49rather than knocks I think you need it you can see in Championship games you absolutely

07:52need intensity and you can't just switch it on and off in the week I think maybe the top

07:55lads can do that but certainly where we are at the moment I think we had a lot of success

08:00last year because of the way that we played and the intensity that we showed and if you

08:03look at the first half there you can't just go lads we're going to have a couple of sort

08:07of light sessions in the week and not tackle and not press and try and replicate what we

08:12did there so it's always a balance it's a fine balance that's ultimately what we've

08:16got to get right and we've got to do we've got to make sure we do get the right balance

08:19but yeah there's something we've got to think about.

08:22We've certainly seen that already this season it's going to be necessary to perform with

08:25that intensity from Leeds from day one onwards really haven't we?

08:29Yeah these are really good sides they're really good sides with really good athletes and we've

08:32got to step up to the plate and make sure we deliver as well.

08:35It's finally all harping on about injuries but Cassini Yenge was on the team list today

08:39wasn't he?

08:40Was there a late injury there?

08:41Yeah it probably sort of sums up our luck at the moment with Cass doing the full warm

08:45up and just feeling he's going towards the end and I don't know if that's about the travel

08:49or what it is but it was fine all week came back on Monday actually and yeah a late one

08:53where we had to take him off the team sheet.

08:54So is there any indication of extent of that yet?

08:57No none at all.

08:58All right cheers Jon.

08:59Thank you mate.

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