Pompey boss John Mousinho chats with The News ahead of Tuesday night's Papa John's Trophy game against Fulham Under-21s at Fratton Park.
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00:00 So Jon, obviously Pompey back in action on Tuesday night in the EFL trophy, how will
00:05 you approach this game team selection wise?
00:07 Yeah, team selection wise we're going to go with a strong team, that might mean there's
00:12 a few changes but in terms of where we think we are with the squad at the moment we think
00:16 we can make quite a few changes and still be really really strong and competitive and
00:19 there was proof of that I think in the first round of the League Cup when we made 10 changes
00:22 and came through really really well beating Forest Green away from home 3-1 and you know
00:27 we'll probably look to do something similar tomorrow night, it won't be exactly the same
00:31 obviously but a real chance for players to come out and impress and ultimately we'll
00:36 be looking to win the game.
00:37 Will it be a chance for young players as well, we saw Kobe Motta coming off the bench in
00:41 the last Cup competition?
00:43 Yeah I think there's always that opportunity, Kobe came off the bench against Forest Green
00:47 because he performed so well at the weekend with the academy and thankfully he's kept
00:51 up that sort of performance level with a couple of goals recently and from the reports that
00:55 we've had he's done really well so another one we are looking to progress into first
01:02 team action if possible if he deserves it and if he does well enough and I think we've
01:05 shown that we're more than willing to do that if and when the time comes especially with
01:08 his appearance on the bench last season so a good opportunity possibly for him and any
01:13 others that might want to grasp that.
01:15 With the EFL trophy traditionally clubs put a lot of young kids as well, a bit different
01:21 to the League Cup, will you expect more youngsters for this competition?
01:24 I think that the way we have the squad set up at the moment means that we are pretty
01:29 much able to field a really strong XI to start the game with pros there that have played
01:37 hundreds of games and others that possibly haven't but we've brought to the squad to
01:40 compete for League action so possibly not from the starting line up but there might
01:46 be a couple on the bench that again have deserved to be there and have earned their stripes
01:50 and the most important thing for us is whether it's a League Cup game, FA Cup, League game
01:54 or EFL trophy we want to make sure that players that do get on to the pitch for Portsmouth
01:58 and wear the shirt deserve to actually be there.
02:00 I'm assuming your squad is so deep you can still play experienced players in the competition
02:06 by making the XI changes?
02:08 Yeah and that's where we feel we're in a good position at the moment and when we look at
02:11 the League action at the weekend and on Tuesday nights, I keep saying it here, we feel like
02:17 it's a really tough selection every week, even players being left off the bench that
02:23 are very, very hard done by and I think it is a good opportunity for these players to
02:27 come in and prove us wrong first of all, show that they're right up for the task and it's
02:32 a showcase, it's a chance for them to say we're here, we want to be on the League side,
02:36 none of them let themselves down when we played against Forest Green and that brought a couple
02:40 of changes when we played at the weekend against Leeds in Orient so there are opportunities
02:43 there, we will change the side if need be, we'll freshen things up if we have to and
02:48 I think that's a really good position to be in.
02:50 What do you make of this competition, you were saying earlier on you made your debut
02:53 in it?
02:54 Yeah I think it's a really, I suppose it depends which way you see it, at the moment I'm sitting
02:59 here and absolutely love the competition to bits because I think we've got the squad that
03:03 can cope with it.
03:05 I always really enjoyed playing in it as a player, never progressed past the semi-finals
03:10 unfortunately so got as close to the semi-finals I think a couple of times and didn't get past
03:14 there, that made my debut in it, I think it's really good for youngsters, the feedback I
03:18 get from academies is that it's one of their better fixtures of the season because all
03:23 of a sudden the 21 players who are probably going to end up at least in their first or
03:27 second loan they're going to end up in the league, it's really good exposure to see where
03:30 they are and it's a very, very different style of football to what is played at academy level
03:34 so really good exposure.
03:36 I think all round sometimes the fixture congestion is the one where head coaches and managers
03:40 don't end up particularly pleased by but yeah as far as I'm concerned we're all here to
03:45 play games and we're relishing the prospect.
03:48 You've already mentioned Kobe Motta, any other academy kids likely to be involved in the
03:52 squad?
03:53 There might be one or two, we're just going to go and finalise the squad after this but
03:56 again it is about a mix of making sure that we have players that deserve to be there,
04:01 we don't want to just hand out even places in the squad at Portsmouth just for the sake
04:04 of it but it gives us a good opportunity I think to introduce a couple of those to first
04:09 team action and let them know what it's all about.
04:11 And of course this competition, the opposition, it will be a bit different to Saturday won't
04:15 it in terms of trying to break them down?
04:17 It will be very different and Fulham will try and play and they'll be a really good
04:22 side at doing so.
04:23 They'll obviously try and replicate what they do at first team level which is for them to
04:28 play some really good football over the past couple of years and at the academy levels
04:33 I think the way that they try and operate is to prepare players to be able to go and
04:37 play in the Premier League and the way they want to play is by playing a huge amount of
04:41 football and so that's really tough to come up against sometimes but yeah a very, very
04:44 different style I think to what we saw at the weekend.
04:47 Any fresh injury problems?
04:48 No, no fresh injury news so yeah all clear on that front apart from the ones that we
04:51 know about.