Pompey v Sheffield United: John Mousinho press conference

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to The News ahead of the Blues' trip to Bramall Lane on Saturday

Transcript

00:00John, obviously the transfer window now closed, are you satisfied with how it went?

00:05Yeah, I feel like we're in a stronger position than we were certainly going into the window.

00:09We've managed to bring eight players in, eight very different players, some of them long-term,

00:14some of them short-term, a good mixture as well, I think a good mixture of loans, permanence,

00:19six-month permanence and longer-term permanence as well, a couple of fees.

00:22And I think we've seen the impact already of some of the starting players, we've seen

00:26what Isaac's done coming in, we've seen what Rob's done coming in, Coen made his debut

00:30at the weekend, Tommy's got a goal, Hayden's made his debut already and I think there's

00:34anything missing, remind me, but I think that's been really, really positive with the players

00:39that we brought in late as well, I think we've got Ben a deal, so yeah, very, very happy

00:44with where we are and I think the most important thing is to look at the window where we were

00:49on the 31st of December, where we are now and I definitely think we're in a much stronger

00:54position.

00:55And of course, in terms of the squad, you've also strengthened a few positions in terms

00:59of you were short of numbers there as well.

01:01Yeah, and so Cade is the other one that I didn't mention, that was something that we'd

01:05been looking to strengthen ever since Paddy's injury, so Paddy going down, we thought that

01:09was a possible area that we could look to strengthen in on the right wing, so we've

01:13managed to do that with Cade, left back was somewhere when Jacob had his injury, we weren't

01:18necessarily 100% going to go out and get someone because we knew there were other priorities,

01:22but Coen became available on a short-term deal and that made a huge amount of sense

01:26to us.

01:27So yeah, I think we've strengthened in areas that we needed to strengthen in, that was

01:32the target anyway, we targeted certain positions and a couple of deals came up as the window

01:37went on where we thought whether they're for the long-term or the short-term, they were

01:40too good to turn down.

01:41So in terms of staying up in the Championship, how much does this boost your chances, do

01:46you feel?

01:47You know, we've spoken at length, I think, about making sure that we're competitive and

01:51making sure that we stay in it and there were times when we were probably a result

01:55away from feeling like we were cut adrift, but we always picked up the result and I think

01:59we've put ourselves in a decent enough position, I think, certainly relative to where we were

02:03earlier in the season.

02:04By no means is that us being satisfied with where we are, fifth bottom and three points

02:08above the relegation zone, but we've given ourselves a chance going into the last 16

02:12games and what we really wanted to do was focus, particularly in the first 10 games

02:16where we hadn't won a game and we felt like we were suffering through the sort of injuries

02:21and the lack of availability in certain areas, we wanted to make sure that we stayed competitive

02:27and stayed in it until January when we were actually able to bring some players in and

02:31strengthen certain areas we needed to strengthen.

02:33So I think overall it's been a successful January, we've got a huge amount of work to

02:38do because obviously other sides have strengthened as well and we're competing in a very, very

02:43competitive division, but I think we've given ourselves a half decent chance.

02:47You've got six loans in the door as well, obviously you can play five in a matchday

02:50squad, how do you circumnavigate that?

02:53It's something we have to manage on a week-by-week basis and sometimes it might not be a problem

02:59and what we've had over the past few weeks, for example, is we've had the loans and they've

03:05been injuries so we've not been able to name them in the matchday squad, who knows what

03:08that's going to be like going forward, the chances of all six being fit and available

03:13that's going to happen on certain weekends and other times we just have to make sure

03:15that we pick the best ones for the matchday squad that we think are appropriate for that

03:20game.

03:21The decision really came down to us looking at it in the end and going, well, it's not

03:25ideal, it's not something that we desperately wanted to do and bring six loans in because

03:30of the fact we can only name five in the matchday squad, but when Cade became available we had

03:36to trade those two off, so it was the trade-off by going, right, what's the best thing for

03:40the football club?

03:41There might be a bit of short-term pain sometimes, some weekends, if we end up leaving someone

03:45out but we think it makes us stronger as a squad and we think it gives us a better chance

03:49of staying in the league.

03:50Obviously Marco Amani has come back from injury recently, he's one of the loan players, is

03:55he available for this weekend?

03:56Whether he's available for the weekend or not, I don't know, but he's been training

03:59this week so he had a full training session today and we'll see how he is after that session,

04:04maybe take a check on him Friday and go from there, but it's much more positive for Mark

04:07than it has been over the past few weeks.

04:09As you well know, if he's available for the weekend, you've got six loans to choose from!

04:13Yes, and again, we'll have a look at that on a case-by-case basis.

04:17We've had the loans in this season and we've never had that full complement, obviously,

04:22until we bought Adil in and then bought Cade in, so we've got six, but there have been

04:26times this season where we've had the loans, they've not been available for whatever reason

04:29and we've been way below that.

04:31But I think if you remember where we were after the Plymouth game and I think Michael

04:38and Eric spoke about what we'd probably look to do in January, which was maybe look at

04:41the loan market a bit more and I think that's a consequence of us knowing that we need to

04:46strengthen in the short term, but what we don't want to do is do anything that jeopardises

04:51us in the future or doesn't give us the flexibility in the summer, so getting the loans in I think

04:55is a really important thing for us.

04:57What sort of player is Cade Gordon?

04:59Well, he's a very, very exciting young talent who first came across my radar, we went to

05:05see Liverpool play at Old Trafford at the back end of last season, just before the Bolton

05:11game actually, the PL2 game and Liverpool had a few promising players playing that night,

05:18a couple who have featured for Liverpool or gone out on loan since and Cade was one of

05:22them and Cade was really promising that night.

05:26He can play anywhere across the front three, behind the front man, but I think his best

05:29position is off the right, he's a direct winger, very, very good 1v1 and he brings a lot of

05:35excitement and a lot of potential to be that out-and-out winger that I think we like to see.

05:41I'm really excited to bring Cade in, he's had a loan at Norwich so this is his second

05:44loan and I think he got unlucky at times there not to have more of a spell in the first team

05:48and I think it's a really good next move for him to see what he can do.

05:52Did he play on the same team as Harvey Blair at Liverpool?

05:55Yes, yes he did.

05:56So they know each other obviously then?

05:57Yeah.

05:58Did you come across him when you were watching Harvey as well?

06:01Yeah and there's a really promising group I think coming out of Liverpool, the 21s with

06:07quite a few good prospects there and Cade's certainly one of them and I think they've

06:11got high hopes for him back at Liverpool but also I think it's the right thing for him

06:14to do and go out and get games and hopefully that can be here.

06:17Obviously you needed to strengthen those attacking positions in this window?

06:21Yeah we'd spoken about early on looking at bringing a six in, we brought Isaac in as

06:25a six, we knew we had to do something at centre-half because we had the injuries and we had the

06:31long-term injuries to the likes of the ban, Connor had been out for six months at that

06:35point, Regan hasn't played a huge amount of football this season so we knew we needed

06:38to strengthen centre-half and we managed to do Rob really early in the transfer window.

06:43The next priority that we spoke about was those attacking positions and it was a case

06:48of yes, sort of targeting positions but also just bringing in the right players or bringing

06:53in good players so they can affect us going forward and we were looking at attacking players

06:58anyway but as soon as Paddy got injured it was something I thought we needed to do to

07:02just give us that strength and depth.

07:03And finally, obviously you're away from home this weekend, you're well aware of your previous

07:07record, is there anything you can do to re-address this issue away from home?

07:14Play a bit better I think, I think a lot of it's just going to be down to us switching

07:23our mindset and having a mentality where yes there were some differences at home and away

07:28from home, the way that you prepare, the way that you travel, decide to take a bit

07:33more confidence from being at home, we clearly do, I think our home form has been very good,

07:36probably up until that Millwall game unfortunately but we still played well that night and just

07:40trying to take a bit of that and not having any fear when we go away from home and certainly

07:44not reacting poorly to the setbacks and the adversity because we've been in a lot of games

07:49until maybe we concede the first goal and then we really struggle to adjust to that

07:57or really struggle to react to that, so there's plenty of things we need to do better but

08:00there's also been plenty of positive away performances where we've not quite been there

08:04so we need to take more of those and then turn those into draws and turn them into wins

08:07and really cut out the dismal ones and we've had far too many of those this season, we

08:11wouldn't hide behind that but I do feel we're different now in terms of the group that we

08:16have, we've had a couple of those away games recently, Bristol City and West Brom, they're

08:22probably two of our most disappointing away games of recent times where we did have to

08:25shuffle the side around and we did it and it didn't particularly work but the other

08:29away games we've actually been a bit more positive, so yeah we've got to adjust something,

08:33we've got to change something and hopefully that starts the weekend.

08:37With three games in a week, will you be shuffling the side again for this one?

08:42There's definitely a possibility and I think we have to look at the squad rotation going

08:46into the Tuesday game and going into the Saturday game so it's something that we're very, very

08:51aware of, I just think we're in a stronger position to do that now than maybe we were

08:55In terms of the squad, the squad's stronger now to do that?

08:57I think so yeah, I think we've definitely got more strength and depth and I feel, you

09:01know I do look at the squad now and I think we, like I said, I think we're stronger than

09:05we were on December 31st.

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