Portsmouth boss John Mousinho previews the clash with Sheffield United

The News, Portsmouth

John Mousinho's Pompey pre-match press conference ahead of Sheffield United clash

Transcript

00:00So Jon, obviously you've got Sheffield United versus Team Thrasher Park on Saturday, you

00:07mentioned after the game last Saturday at Burnley that the Pompey were close to cracking

00:14it really, what improvements have you seen?

00:18I think over the first few weeks of the season we've had some difficult games but we've been

00:23in most of them. I think that the away game, so if you look at the performance last week

00:27compared to Leeds and Middlesbrough, I know we got a point at Leeds and we got a point

00:30at Middlesbrough but I thought those two sides dominated on the day. We came away from both

00:37of those, I think it's strangely unlucky not to have won the game but on the overall balance

00:42of chances and everything they created I thought we were fairly fortunate to get the draw.

00:46I just felt the opposite of the weekend, I felt that our performance was much more controlled,

00:49we looked like a cohesive unit, we didn't concede many clear-cut chances, I think we

00:54frustrated Turf Moore, we frustrated Burnley, it was a lot of long shots, crosses, a couple

01:00of blocks that we put in there but Will Norris, I can't remember him really being tested whereas

01:03I think in previous games he really has been tested and we've needed to get the best out

01:07of him. And then I thought we looked a threat on the counter-attack, we scored a really

01:11good goal, I thought a really good goal that we constructed in the first half, we hit the

01:14post and as we got into the second half I think my only disappointment there was that

01:18we didn't really create enough pressure on the Burnley goal but the game I thought was

01:22sort of drifting towards a draw until the very final few minutes which was a real shame

01:27and we're upset about but a much, much more solid performance and I think we've followed

01:33up what everybody that was at Fratton Park for the West Bond game knew was probably not

01:37a 3-0 but we came away and we lost the game but it was a much better performance for 45

01:41minutes and in spells in the second half so we need to build on that, we need to make

01:45sure that we do click it into gear and put together a performance for 90, 95, 100 minutes

01:50all together and I think once we do that then we'll be a much better team than we have

01:54been over the past six games.

01:55How has Matt Ritchie reacted to that result?

01:59Matt came in and held his hands up on Monday morning which I think is a really, really

02:03good sign, really good sign of the character that he is there and he's been back out training

02:07brilliantly as he always has been, he's a massive influence around the place, a really

02:10important player for us and someone that we value really highly so players always make

02:17mistakes and Matt knows that he did that in that moment and there were plenty of other

02:21things we could have done better as well by the way and that's really important for us,

02:24it's very, very rare that a goal is just the consequence of one mistake, we need to be

02:28better at bailing our teammates out across the board and I think that goal was a perfect

02:32example of that.

02:33How have you made him?

02:37I think his influence around the training ground and what he does on a day-to-day basis

02:41is amazing, he brings a load of energy to training, he's a real leader and he's brought

02:47a load of quality to training as well and I think the next part, the next step up for

02:51us and for Matt is to really see that in games and I think we've seen definite glimpses of

02:56that but I think it's one of those things with Matt as well where he's not played a

03:00huge amount of football over the past couple of seasons so we need to get him back into

03:02the rhythm of doing that and back into the pace of games and sometimes coming on at Burnley

03:07for half an hour is a really, really difficult ask and we expect our players to be able to

03:11do that and I think the more game time all these players get, the better.

03:14He hasn't had a pre-season really, I'm presuming that's impacted him as well?

03:18Yeah, any of the players that haven't had a pre-season, they've not managed to come

03:21in and just hit the ground running straight away and that's obviously been a factor with

03:26a lot of players that we've had and there's no issue there, we just have to make sure

03:31that we now post that first international break, get all those players up to speed but

03:35I think we are, so for the most part we've got players that now have played a decent

03:38amount of minutes, they've had a good chunk of training and yes, there are going to be

03:42some players that come in, if you look at the likes of Freddie who made his first start

03:46for a long, long time and we had to bring him off after 60 minutes because he was tiring

03:50and we didn't want to risk an injury and we didn't want to risk a moment in the game where

03:54we needed fresher legs and we're nearly there with pretty much all of the players, there's

03:58still a couple that haven't got that but we're nearly there with most of them.

04:00That was an obvious one for Freddie coming off because it's his full debut, never played

04:05in a championship before so he was tiring was he?

04:08Yeah you can see, I don't know if anyone remembers, there was that sort of tackle in the middle

04:11of the park where Freddie went to ground and I thought it was just a sign of his legs really

04:16tiring at that point, he put in such a good shift, hardly played a minute pre-season,

04:20he's not played since the back end of the year last year in terms of competitive football

04:25and it was a huge ask anyway so asking Freddie to lace his boots up and go out and turf more

04:30and play as well as he did against such a decent midfielder as Burnley had and actually

04:34I thought he looked very very comfortable and very much in control of his game, played

04:37a huge part in the first goal that we scored and we're really really pleased with him but

04:41we've got to make sure that we build that up like we did with Josh last week so we built

04:44him up for 60 minutes against West Brom, he managed to play 90 minutes at the weekend

04:48and we'll get there quickly with players.

04:50Why did you decide that was the right game for Freddie to start?

04:53For Freddie? I think he's really impressed in training, he's been very assured, very

04:57cool and calm and we were just looking to change things because we've gone through a

05:01patch where we lost two games on the spin and I thought it was the right thing to do

05:05to give Freddie a chance to go in and play.

05:07What was it you really liked about that performance in game?

05:10I thought he was calm and composed, he's in position, when the ball drops to him he puts

05:13his foot on the ball, the best example of that is the goal where the ball breaks down

05:18he picks up the second ball and plays it to Zach, follows his pass and then ends up I

05:22think finding Paddy Lane and that left-sided 10 position and we score from there.

05:27The biggest compliment I think I can play Freddie is that the only worry I had about

05:34him was the fitness side of it, I didn't have any other worries, I thought he was in position

05:38most of the time, competed well, passed the ball well and it was a really well-rounded performance.

05:43You've mentioned that kind of knackered injury, what's the problem there?

05:51We're not entirely sure, we're not going to put a definite time scale on it, it's not

05:54going to be months, hopefully it's just going to be a couple of weeks because he's just

05:58feeling his groin, it's nothing too bad but it's one that we have to protect Callum with,

06:03the output you see him with games and the amount of games that he has played this season

06:07has been very, very high particularly considering he had that nasty ankle injury towards the

06:11back end of last year, didn't play a huge amount at the back end and just getting Callum

06:15back into the rhythm of things was brilliant for us so we got it to miss him but we don't

06:19think it's going to be too bad.

06:20Is it not that serious?

06:22No, it's not that serious, yeah.

06:24So he's not involved in the weekend?

06:26No, he won't be involved in the weekend.

06:28No, no, Marnie?

06:30Mark's been back in training with us, so he trained for the first time today, we'll take

06:34a view of that on Friday and see how he is but we don't want to rush things.

06:38Again with Mark, he did play the game in the League Cup for Brighton so that was a positive

06:45but then he didn't play when he went away on international break with Republic of Ireland

06:48in the 21s and picked up the knockout there so it's now been I think three weeks since

06:53he's really sort of kicked them all in anger so we'll have to see with Mark.

06:56And Sean's here?

06:58Connor is going to train on Friday or have a fitness test in the morning and look to

07:02train on Friday and we'll see where he is then.

07:04Thank you very much.

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