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